New Carthage
by Mago V
Summary: This is a story of a lost culture. Not one that people can't find anymore, no its ruins are where they have always been, but one that was completely obliterated by Rome. This story is about the survivors. Mainly focusing on the original characters with very limited scenes of Chiron and Luke in the first few chapters. Info of the sequel updated.
1. Chapter 1

If you have been reading all of the pamphlets, books, scrolls, stone tablets, or bought audio books or heaven forbid watched the movie of the Demigods of Greece and Rome, heroes of the northlands or magicians of Egypt then you already know part of my tale. Except you probably don't have the slightest idea of who I am or even where I'm from. I will tell you but now allow me to congratulate Rick Riordan on making people interested in the classical world, without him interest in roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Norse mythology wouldn't be where it is today. He has written about the four cultures that have shaped western civilization. Or has he? "What could he be missing?" You may ask "He has culture, from Egypt, science, from Greece, discipline, from Rome, and strength from the Vikings. My dear readers he is missing one of the most influential aspect of western culture, money, and where's there's money there is Qart-Hadasht. My homeland, Carthage.

One reason that he forgot or never bothered to write our story is we have been swept under a rug. Carthage and Rome have always tried to one up us and isn't surprising that they would soak up as much publicity away from us as possible. Of course another reason would be that Riordan simply doesn't have time, or he could be waiting until after his Norse novel is finished. I suppose that I wouldn't even have to do this if that was the case or perhaps I could send my script to him and let him deal with the publishers… oh I'll just get on with it. My story, Carthage's story didn't end with Rome's salting of Carthage's fields. Oh no, we were still alive, some of us fled, Hannibal Barca was one of the ones who was eventually able to create a new living for himself, sure this new living was fighting the Romans in the east, but still he survived. Until that is the Romans broke through. Hannibal was still a marked man, wanted by Rome. He didn't give them the satisfaction of killing him he drank poison to avoid being captured by the Romans. Some of the mercenaries we had hired to fight the Romans defected and joined them, I can't really blame them considering what happened to the rest of us. Those Carthaginian citizens that had remained in Carthage to the bitter end were all killed, sold into slavery or like our leaders' wife, thrown themselves into a fire rather than succumb to roman rule.

My story begins where all New Carthaginian stories begin, in New Carthage on Guanahacabibes peninsula Cuba. Since it is a natural park we use what you would call the "mist" we however call it "I don't know what you're talking about I don't see anything out of the ordinary"... Mist does have a better ring to it…

Never mind my story started on my eighteenth birthday,

I'm sorry for the overuse of novel stereotypes about teenagers and all of the cultures becoming an adult ceremony but this is how it happened. And it's not like there is anything significant about it anymore it's really more cultural now especially since you're not technically a fully fledged adult until you twenty one anyway, sorry I have a habit of rambling on, to keep this shorter I'll have my personal assistant Elissa keep me on task.

"Elissa get in here!"

"You don't have to yell brother I am just in the next tent over and yeah you do need someone to keep you on track"

Now I begin


	2. Chapter 2

**I do not own any of the characters besides the ones of Carthaginian heritage and if Rick Riordan wants them then congratulations I am glad to to give them to him.**

"Mago it is time" A bronze armored figure startled me awake. With a spear clenched in his right hand and a blank bronze shield in his left

"Yeah, I know, thanks for the reminder Gisco" I said rising from the couch I had previously been napping on "So" I started "Do you have any idea of what we're getting into Gisco?" I asked grabbing my issued bronze helmet and sword.

"No all I know is that the sooner we're done with this the sooner i'm done cleaning up after animals. I've had it with shoveling horse and elephant dung for nine years."

"And if you get selected for the Calvary?"

This is how things were what we were about to do was more than just a cultural coming of age ritual but determined what type of soldier we would be. Both Gisgo and I were hoping to get into the most prestigious group. The sacred Band. However, this required to be a veteran of a citizen phalanx or stay on as trainer status for nine more years. Needles to say we didn't want to wait any longer Gisco was tired of cleaning animal poop and I, well being um, well...

"You looking for the word unemployed brother"

"Yes, thanks, Elissa"

Anyway, as mentioned by my annoying sister being unemployed was looked down upon.

"I wouldn't worry about that if I were you" Gisco said humorously "After nine years I think they have someone better in mind for shoveling dung around.

"Hey I've trained as hard if not harder to get into the citizen phalanx than you."

"Heh, as hotheaded as ever, you're to old to do that, I was talking about your sister."

"Oh"

After the hassle of putting on my tunic and Mail we hurried out of the door to the Tophet. For those of you who haven't heard of the Tophets they were temple like structures that were built for sacrificing really anything to the gods. And yes while there was child sacrifice in these, there was child sacrifice in almost every ancient culture. You can even find examples of this in the Old Testament so…

"Ack! You made your point get on with it already!"

Yes, sorry. Now it's more child friendly, no animals or humans or any living thing, just artworks and gold, silver and copper coins. The Tophet is also where we were supposed to meet chief priest Hanno. The entrance to was scattered with bronze and ivory statues of important Carthaginian citizens, the closer inside of the Tophet we got the bronze statues were replaced with gold, silver and marble statues of the gods until we got to the altar with two statues on either side and one in the middle. I remembered the two flanking ones from my classes the male made from pure gold on the right was a statue of Ba'al Hammon the chief god of Carthage and god over the weather. The female on my right was made of pure silver was the protector of Carthage, Tanit, however the one in the middle was also a female but I had never seen anything that resembled it. Well it kind of looked like Tanit but was shorter with longer hair. Being just as confused as I was Gisco turned to me

"Who is that?"

I was about to respond when a booming voice echoed through the halls

"That, young lad is Dido, the first queen of Carthage and her founder. We usually include her story as part of our little trial here but the chief priest isn't here today and I have something different in mind for you two."

Appearing out of the shadows of the statue of Ba'al appeared a tall well built man with a short beard. This was surprising because clergy members were all clean shaven. My surprise must have shone because he smiled and continued.

"You may have noticed that I am not a member of the clergy.

"Then who are you" asked a bewildered Gisco.

" That's not important I can assure you that your teachers have given their approval. For your test you will need a sailor can either of you sail?

"No." I said not knowing what this had to do with anything.

"Hmm, I know" he said grabbing a piece of paper from inside of his robe along with a pen. he started writing on the paper and instructed us

"Deliver this to the dock hand he should know what to do. Anyway" he said taking out another piece of paper from his robe "this map will guide you to an island just like your town it is hidden from mortal view so don't worry about having to explain to any hikers what you're doing there with swords and spears. When you arrive you will be looking for a cave inside there will be a two headed dog Orthrus.

"But he's Greek what would he have to do with us?" Shouted Gisco

The man's eyes turned stormy and continued " It is Greek, but, i find him residing so close to us troublesome no one save a few scattered Celtic tribes know about us still surviving. If the Greeks or Romans found out about our survival things could turn south, that is why you are being sent there. We must treat every outsider as hostile if we are to survive. Remember also that anything that it's stored up in its cave are spoils of war and rightfully belong to you, and perhaps more importantly show that you have accomplished your task.

"Getting back to your earlier words wouldn't it be wiser than to send an entire squad of skirmishes" I asked

"That depends on your definition of wise I suppose, it would indeed be wiser to make sure that the job gets done, but wiser still to not be noticed. Even though there hasn't been a roman patrol for ages we can't risk an armed force full of disciplined soldiers being spotted by our enemies and tortured for information."

"So" Gisco interrupted better for two… or, three adventurers to be "Rescued than an army captured."

The man nods his head "exactly" and with that he handed us the map and the letter and turned around

"We should get going right away Mago."

And with that we turned to leave

"Oh, yes I almost forgot, you should leave your armor and weapons here to better fit the roles you have been given."

"But then how are we going to fight."

"I've already seen to that your boat will be supplied with "sport weapons" and chakrams"

Replied the man

"Chaka what's"

"Throwing disks" Gisco replied "there from India, I've tried using them a couple times but I always miss you can use them I think I'll stick to with whatever the "sport weapons" are. Anyway we still need to pack essential supplies like food and water" "you go down to the docks with these." He said handing me the map and letter "try to find the dock hand; I'll be there as soon as I buy the supplies."


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own the works of Rick Riordan.**

I left the Tophet and headed down to the docks through the industrial part of town. It was one of my favorite, the sounds of the blacksmith hammering out tools and weapons calmed me. Whenever I was anxious for an upcoming fencing tournament I would lay on the couch that the blacksmith had added in the back of his shop just for me. This originally was supposed to influence me to work as his apprentice but finally the forty year old man had given up.

"Ho, master Mailion, today's when you go on your trial is it?"

After being absorbed in my own thoughts the blacksmith Whitelaw Snapped me back to reality"Yes, it is. I don't suppose you have any advice on you?"

"Oh no, I didn't go through with any military training, originally I had some ambition but after two years of learning the way of the sword I decided I wouldn't even get to the trial part and well the rest you already know, I became a blacksmith."

"Well, thanks anyway, I best be on my way."

"Oh stop by the trainee barracks you sister was here looking for you said she had something for you."

"Thanks."

I made my way out of the industrial part and turned left on the main road to get to the military section of New Carthage. As soon as I opened the front gate I was bombarded with well wishes, and hugs, I eventually made it out of the mob and went directly to my barracks where I removed my mail and set my falcata on my rack alongside my helmet.

"I'm glad you were able to stop by."

I jumped, not noticing that Elissa had been in my room all along.

"I just wanted to wish you luck, and give you this seeing as how you couldn't afford a jacket." she said handing me a small vial of some liquid.

"It's a potion I mixed up for you, it should stop an infection so use it if you get a nasty cut. Or" she added with a mischievous glint in her eye "light it on fire and throw it, should cause a small explosion." With that she lept out of my room.

I chuckled, grabbed a coat and pocketed the vial. Hopefully I wouldn't need its first function and would use it to subdue Orthrus, however things never go as easily as planned for me.


	4. Chapter 4

**I d not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the heroes of Olympus or the Kane chronicles, or the Norse one of whitch I can never remember the name.**

 **The chapters I post should start getting longer.**

 **If you would be so kind as to review I would be most pleased.**

When I arrived at the dock there was only one person there, not knowing what to do I gave him the letter and asked if he knew where our boat was. He then grabbed the letter out of my hand and gazed over it and told me to follow him. He led me to sailing yacht pointed on and said that he would be back with our captain and supplies. I boarded the yacht and went inside of the cabin. My first reaction was to wonder how all of us would sleep with just two couches. I hoped that the captain somehow wouldn't need to sleep and just take us to our destination. That was until I opened what I assumed to be the bathroom a bed at bow of ship, without further thought I threw my coat down on the matters and threw myself on my coat, hitting my head against the low hanging ceiling in the process. I sat in pain for a while but eventually went back on the dock and saw Gisco arriving with a backpack being led by a tall tan man with a thin mustache who I assumed was the captain.

"Mago, this is captain Magi, he will be the one sailing." Gisco said as he approached me. "I have our supplies, enough food and water to last the three of us five days at most, so we need to get going as soon as possible."

"I have prepared your weapons in bag bellow in my room under the stern, divide them up as you see fit." The captain cried over his shoulder as he was already untying the ropes that held the yacht to the port. "Better get on soon"

"That's what he meant as sport weapons" I said when Gisco emptied the bags contents on the one couch that Gisco had to take as a bed.

"I'd hate to see what play weapons would be" Gisco said as he picked up baseball bat

"Sport weapons!" "How are we supposed to hunt Orthrus now"

"Wait, here are the chakrams he said grabbing three hollow disks with razor sharp edges "Made out of Mithril. Good, weapons that can actually harm Orthrus, and ooh a composite bow I'll take this." Gisco said as he handed me the chakrams

"And the arrows" I asked.

"Here" Gisco held up a bundle of silver arrows "all Mithril."

While the Greeks used celestial bronze and the Romans used imperial gold it's only fair that we got our own. The Mithril we used could affect all monsters, deities and mortals. The only drawback about Mithril thought was its rarity. With as few silver deposits as there are the only reason arrows were made out of it was for monster hunting. When the monster would disintegrate the hunters would always collect the fired arrows to use again.

"And what should we do with the rest of this junk?" Asked Gisco as he loaded the bow and drew back the string.

"Easy there, we don't want to sink this ship before we even make it ashore."

"Relax," Gisco replied "I'm just testing the tension."

"Get up here!" Shouted captain Magi.

"That was quicker than I expected."

But what we saw surprised us.

"I don't see anything."

"Yes, well things move"

"Whole islands don't just up and move though."

"Who said anything about islands Gisco, I'm talking about a monster.

"A monster, out here?" I tried not to sound nervousness but it probably showed.

"Yes, the two tailed serpent servant of Yam."

"The sea God?"

"Who also happens to be my patron god."

"Wait, but if the serpent is a servant of your patron god then why are you worried." Gisco piped in.

Captain Magi sighed and leaned on the wheel "All of the monsters are getting more aggressive he came up to ram the ship but I managed to maneuver us away. This also is bad news for you, I feel that this will not stop with just the Carthaginian monsters. You would do well to ensure that Orthrus is asleep when you enter it's cave."

My mind took me back to the man who had given us the quest. The more I thought about him and our quest unnerved me. Why would he assign two trainees to this important mission that was during a time that monsters were only getting more violent? The only two reasons that I could come up with was that he was insane, or that he had placed a high bet on us not returning, neither of which made me feel any better.

Eventually all three of us tired out. The captain started to look for a suitable island to anchor down. Luckily for us it only took us thirty more minutes for him to find a nice little cove away from the wind that had propels us this far.

"Don't worry," captain Magi told us "no sea serpents should be able to get to us this close to the land"

His statement settled me only a little for my main concern was Orthrus right now. As soon as my head hit my pillow I was out. You may see this as a blessing, but let me tell you, trying to determine what the dream I had meant took more energy from me than the rest did to replenish it. I haven't had a dream like this since I was worrying about my quest. So about seven hours. It started out how most of my dreams end on my couch in the blacksmith shop, but this time when I rose up I wasn't met with the familiar sight of the textile mill on the other side of the street but instead was a U shaped courtyard surrounded by twelve cabins. Including the one I had just came out of. My feet carried themselves over to a small pine tree that looked just freshly planted then my feet turned and led me to one of the cabins. It wasn't the best kept I remembered inside there were a variety of kids none of them appeared to be older than twenty and the youngest, who was standing just in front of me was no more than seven. She seemed to have been crying and was seeking comfort in a boy. Then my view changed half of my dream self went to an abyss and the other half went to a mountain. I remember feeling like I had just been electrocuted, all of my hair stood on end. The voice that spoke to me next sounded different in both of the halves the one in the abyss sounded manipulative and pure evil while the other voice coming from the mountain was strong and powerful booming through the mountains. However the two voices had one thing in common they were both saying the same thing "Free me, return the glory of the ancient ones, create a new golden age."


	5. Chapter 5

**I own nothing.**

 **please feel free to review.**

"Mago!" "We've landed."

Those were the happiest words of my entire existence. Until I saw the island that we landed on. A small island, with a cave off to our right, and small forest to our left. I grabbed the chakrams and Gisco Shouldered his bow and snatched the arrows.

"Good luck." Said our captain " I stay on the ship, this is as far as I've been instructed to go."

"thank you, we should be back today, if we're not here tomorrow… Come looking for us. Mago gulped out.

I handed him a couple bronze shekels and I untied the lifeboat and we both got in.

"So, Mago what is your idea."

"My idea why do you always make me the one who's either going to sink or swim?" I asked irritably. Whenever we were in a pickle Gisco would always worm out of any blame. He would come with the big idea and then expect me to come up with the details of how to get the job done.

"Fine, whatever!" I shouted, which in hindsight was probably a terrible idea. "I'll light my concoction here on fire," I said as I drew the vial out of my jacket "throw it in the cave and then you shower it with arrows."

"That's it."

"It's small it shouldn't be that hard."

"Those are famous last words if I ever heard any."

"Just do it."

During our little confrontation there he had failed to notice that the two headed dog had made its way out of its cave and was walking towards us.

"I don't even know why we would need to hunt it, it's not like even if it could get to the Greeks it could even tell them about us." Gisco continued. Why don't we just hurry into the cave and just take something without killing the monster."

"I don't know Gisco, I have the feeling we're not getting the whole story from this "not a priest guy". "But I do know…" I had just stepped in front of Gisco realizing for the first time our dilemma.

"What."

"I do know if we don't want to hunt him we should run"

And that's when all heck broke loose. Orthrus started sprinting toward us, I quickly scrambled up the closest tree leaving Gisco standing alone where I had left him.

"Gisco, lead him away from his cave, I'll snoop around in it and look for anything worthwhile."

He was already leading Orthrus into the forest when called back so I couldn't really make out what he said but if I'm guessing it would probably be something along the lines as "You're a genius! I wish I had your intellect.

"Jeez Elissa, you can't take sarcasm can you"

I quickly scrambled back down the tree and ran to Orthrus's cave. My first impression was that it was dark, cold, and damp. My second impression was the same as my first and well you get the picture. I quickly found where he slept a pile of grass padded down to make a nice comfy bed, if you didn't mind the smell of rotting flesh. I set to work on finding anything useful a couple cow skulls, many bones of unidentifiable origins and a couple of tattered shirts. Without gagging too much I started spreading apart the grass that made up his bed until my hand got nicked on what I assumed was straw until I looked down. What was uncovered was a small bronze dagger, and a three foot long bronze sword. Searching further and I found the sheaths for both and a four foot falcata. I threw them into a makeshift bag I made out of my coat and ran back to the lifeboat.

When I arrived the lifeboat was flipped over and there were dog footprints all around it. I smiled to myself thinking that Gisco wasn't entirely incompetent.

"Gisco! Orthrus is gone." I said kneeling next to the boat.

"Yeah I know, I was just making sure he wouldn't come back." He replied sliding out from under the boat

"Help me get this boat back in the water and then show me what you got."

"What makes you think I have anything?" I replied smugly.

"You're back and you smiling really creepily. I don't think you would look like that if you didn't succeed."

"Well", I replied grabbing the back side of the boat while Gisco pivoted the front around into the water "one Greek looking sword a knife and a falcata, I'm taking the falcata." I stated as I pulled them from my jacket bag and stared at the falcata. The blade was pure Mithril bent two thirds of the way up made for maximum maneuverability, and a small ivory hilt. "To bad I didn't find the sheath for this blade though I bet it's a beauty." I said more to myself trailing my finger along the blade.

"Here," I tossed the Greek sword over to him along with its sheath, "this is for your hard work."

"Thanks"

I stood up to get a better look at his sword; something about it caught my eye it was giving off a faint glow. It was definitely not a Carthaginian blade. The hilt opened up and the blade itself was more triangular. However what really got my attention was when Gisco put the sword in the sheath.

"I don't see why you should get the falcata, I mean I did all of the leg work for you." Gisco complained as he sheathed the sword "I mean…" He was cut off when as soon as he touched the sheath to the blade it shrank into a pen.

"What is this?"

"You're asking me it's like some kind of witchcraft." I responded.

When we returned to the yacht captain Magi was waiting for us.

"Everything went according to planned?" He asked us.

We looked at each other nothing went according as planned.

"Yeah, everything went swell" we said in unison.

The journey back was uneventful. The occasional sea serpent appeared, but I was feeling unnerved. Sure we had completed our task, as far as anyone was concerned, I had obtained a free blade, and spared a monster's life. However I felt not there was something amiss. The bearded clearly member plaques my thoughts I told Gisco about it but he accused me of being paranoid, and said that we should relax that we have completed our task but I knew even he thought something was wrong.

"Hey kids, get up here."

Not another lecture about monster behavior or the movement of the constellations or another bad idea of how we could still become sailors if we tried I hoped.

Then I heard Gisco climbing down the latter

"Mago," he said with a face I couldn't quite figure out it conceived, "you need to see this."

I couldn't believe my eyes. In front of our ship was our dock sure enough, and our Tophet, it was our city, but on fire.

"What's going on?"

"I thought it was just a forest fire" I heard captain Magi murmur.

Gisco spoke up "captain Magi think it was the mercenaries."

I knew exactly what he meant; the mercenary soldiers were always the majority of the soldiers of Carthage even back in the classical era, Carthage's military were almost entirely made out of mercenaries so that its citizens would be able to focus on the navy. They were paid less than the sacred band citizen phalanx and Punic Cavalry and always resented the regular military ever since the first mercenary rebellion that happened after the first Punic war. The mercenaries that fought under Hamilcar Barca had been promised a high wage after the completion of the war. The war ended but not in Carthage's favor so the council of elders had decided not to reward the mercenaries and Hamilcar was forced to fight the soldiers that he had commanded when the unhappy mercenaries revolted.

"They have been looking for a reason for a long time I guess they've finally snapped." Replied captain Magi sadly. "We can't dock we should check for anyone fleeing the city."

So captain Magi set a course for ahead of the military docks. I was still in shock over the burning of my homeland. The Carthaginians had settled out a new land, made a new city, only to have it suffer the same fate as its predecessor. Hopefully my sister had made it out before the mercenaries had started to burn my city.

"We need to get out away from here, we could try to find other survivors and form another little community somewhere."

"No" Gisco replied sternly "we can't return to Cuba, that's for sure. The mercenaries will be after all citizen soldiers, and so few survivors we wouldn't last long on Hattie or the Dominican Republic."

"That leaves America then."

"No Mago, we are not going there. I don't care if Italy defected to the Allies side, and even if we weren't viewed poorly have you truly forgotten that's where every other culture has their headquarters."

I remembered that the last conflict between the western powers. World War Two, the leaders of both the sides were Greek demigods, except for Italy. The ironic thing was that the leader of Italy then, Benito Mussolini, was Carthaginian, and by some ironic twist of fate blessed by Mot, the Carthaginian God of the dead to make it seem like the war was an entirely Greek conflict.

"Look…"

However our conversation was cut short by captain Magi.

"A quinquereme, there are survivors!"

Sure enough, two nautical miles in front of us sailed what to the unaware eye a trireme, but with two more sets of oars, along with three masts.

"How can we get there attention? There going way too fast to catch up with them." Gisco asked.

I thought back to my old days when my father had tried to teach me how to sail, something, there had to be a way there just had to be.

"Hold on a minute I might have brought a couple with me." I heard captain Magi mumble

"What, you brought what!"

As captain Magi locked the wheel in a position and claimed down into the galley he looked back and said, "a flair gun."

"Blast it!i have the gun but no flair!" Captain Magi reappeared above deck.

Then an idea struck me "would this work I said fishing the vial out of my pocket.

"I have no idea what that is but right now I might as well try" it he grabbed the vial and stuffed it in the muzzle of the gun aimed it upwards and fired.

That, is when things started to turn south. First of all the gun erupted into millions of tiny pieces one of which happened to find its way into Gisco's thigh, and the brass handle flew up hit captain Magi square on the forehead and was knocked unconsciousness. I proceeded to do the thing anyone would do if he were in my shoes, panic. I ran downstairs grabbed a pot and began to fill it up from the sink, It never occurred to me until just now how dumb that was, and looked around for a medical journal or something.

I eventually came to the conclusion that this boat did not have a medical journal. I would have made a mental note to tell the company who rented us this boat but I didn't know what the company was.

I then grabbed the pot, now filled to the brim with water, however before lifting it out of the sink the boat lurched about throwing me back into my cabin where I bumped my head against the part of the boat that I had first arriving on it.

I don't know what came over me but I forgot the put of water and grabbed my makeshift bag and climbed back up the latter and noticed that the hip had stopped moving and the air smelt of smoke. That was when I blacked out.

I opened my eyes, something wasn't right, in front of me sat some sort of mummy. That weirded me out, but what really creeped me out was the green mist that came out of its mouth. The mouth moved like it was forming words but no sound came out. My legs carried me down some stairs and outside and in front of a man in a wheelchair. I still couldn't hear a thing but assumed that he was talking to me. I or, that is dream me which I had began to call him, pulled out the pen sword I had found in Orthrus's cave and handed it to the man. The man uncapped it and swung it in excellent form as it grew into a full sized sword. I watched as the man recapped it and set it down on a mental and turned back to me, but this time he was the man I had seen in the Tophet back at New Carthage and said

"Excellent work." And handed me a falcata of pure Mithril two feet long "this should be perfect for reclaiming Carthage's honor, long enough to outreach any roman or Greek sword you come across and short enough for extra maneuverability. Almost like a short ax in my opinion, but more fluid like."

"You'll find Gisco's weapon on the beach, he won't be happy." "Well it should help give you a distinct advantage over the Romans and Greeks and Norse." "Wait for my next instructions." He said as he waved his hand waking me up only to hit my head against a low ceiling and get knocked out again.


	6. Chapter 6

**I do not own anything. If somehow put in something that would be impossible without an explanation please tell me. I have yet to read the first book of Rick Riordans Norse book and I anticipate that I will use part of that book and make it a crossover.**

Now, there are a couple times that I will have to hand the narrating over to someone else, being knocked out this is one of those times. In place of me you'll get either Gisco or Elissa. This time, I'm sorry to say, it will be my sister.

Gee thanks for that great introduction. Anyway I just so happened to be on that same quinquereme that captain Magi had pointed out previously. The same feelings that we're going through Mago's head was going through all of ours.

"Was our city really destroyed, was this just some elaborate prank on the deities side."

I remember asking one of the deckhands where we were going but he just turned away and shrugged. Finally the burning city was out of our view. We should have been farther away to …

No one knows where but none of the crew was ready when the mercenaries had stormed the city hall and there was barely half a crew rowing. My mind went back to earlier that day, I had been so excited Mago and Gisco would be returning any moment, and I figured that with that there would be a celebration. And celebrations equal tons of food.

That's when a commotion broke me out of my trance.

"I can still see a fire, I'm sure of it." Cried someone from the crow's nest.

"That's impossible, the city shouldn't be in view anymore" replied a second.

"It's a boat! A boat's sail is on fire it looks like the yacht that was taken by captain Magi!"

"Are you sure?"

"Aye, I'd wager he tried to dock and was attacked."

I was ecstatic. Then the boat was full of people shouting in Punic, the official language of the citizens of Carthage. I had never been one to actually sit still and try to learn a second language, especially one that had had been dead for a couple hundred of years but I still managed to get the gist of it

"Turn starboard." And other nautical terms that I had no idea what they meant.

By the time our ship had reached theirs their entire jib sail was ablaze heard some shouting and our corvus was lowered, one of the only roman adaption we used. Right on top of my brother's head it turns out.

The deckhands rushed past me with stretchers boarding the smaller yacht and came back carrying Mago, Gisco, and captain Magi on our ship.

"They need a doctor!" I heard someone shout.

"Bring them down into the galley, I'll make some room." Said the man that I would later find out was the man who assigned my brothers his quest. One of the deckhands saluted him and ran down to the galley shouting for the rowers to make room, and was followed by the man.

"They'll be fine." Said a voice I immediately recognized.

"Captain Magi!" I shouted "I had thought you were one of the wounded."

"I was, but that awful burning smell brought me back to reality." "Your brother should be fine he was just on the head by you Corvus there. I don't know about Gisco he seemed to have lost a lot of blood from a piece of shrapnel."

"What happened" I asked.

"Captain Magi sighed and turned around "after seeing the city in smoke, And the mercenaries running amok in Carthage we decided that it would be far safer to try to find any survivors than to try to resume anyone from the city. We started to sail away from Cuba and that's when we caught sight of your quinquereme. We knew we couldn't hope to out sail a fully manned one, and we hoped that it was the case, so I had the brilliant idea of using a flare gun, except we had no flares.

"I see where this is going."

The captain turned around "So Mago brought this vial out and asked if it would work. Now I may not be the best at chemistry but I know enough about it to be able to tell when something is flammable. So I decided it would have to work then I loaded it in the barrel and fired.

That's when things turned sour, first of all the brass handle flew off and hit me on the forehead, then a large piece of shrapnel dug itself deep into Gisco's thigh and the jib caught on fire. However that last one may be a blessing."

"How's that?"

"What caught your eye to our little problem lass?"

"Ohh" As I had finally caught on.

"Here take this" he said tossing me a bag that looked suspiciously like my brothers coat, "this is you brothers make sure he gets them I'm going to check on where this Vessel is headed."

Curiosity overcame me as I looked inside of the bag, there was a Mithril unsheathed falcata, and a dagger, I sighed figuring that they were for both Gisco and Mago. I went below deck to try to find them. After a couple wrong turns I had finally made it to where they were keeping them I was about to lay the bag down next to them when I decided to just empty the contents and keep the bag for myself. Sure, it's not very moral, but I figured I deserved some of the credit; after all it was me who went to the trouble of obtaining that potion that basically saved their lives.

"Oh shut up!" "Without it you would never have seen me again."

"..."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear you mumble "that wouldn't really be all that bad."

Anyway, after that sprinted up to the deck to see if Captain Magi had found out where we were headed. That's when I ran into a couple of crewmen and ducked down to listen to them.

"What I don't understand is why we're going to the U.S.; we'll be in trouble if the Yankees catch hold of us."

"Yeah, or the Greeks and Romans for that matter."

Then a third voice cut in, "yeah I don't understand it either, why aren't we going to other outposts we used to have such as one on Klein Curaçao, Saint Martin, or even the one in Canada.

"We would never get to the one in Canada."

"Oh, because the one on Klein Curaçao is so built up. What is it a lighthouse and a couple of huts?" Came one of the crewmen so voice dripping with sarcasm.

"The one In Saint Martin isn't much better."

"If we had more resources we could always return home."

I shuddered at the thought. I had never seen the original capital of the Carthaginian Empire, but many of the older residents of New Carthage had visited the now rebuilt city. It was considered extremely dangerous, the crossing that would be made would go in between the pillars, of Hercules, and Hanno the Navigator's tales of great sea serpents and other monsters in the straight was correct.

"Well our leader has already decided that if we are ever to be taken seriously again we most act." a new voice came.

I looked over the barrel that I had ducked behind and saw dressed in traditional Sacred Band armor standing in front of all of the deckhands and quickly back behind the barrel before he could have seen me.

"You four wouldn't last an hour as scouts you haven't noticed the girl that's been eavesdropping on you this entire time." "Come on out deer I don't know if you should be proud or these sailors should be ashamed he said with an eerily calm voice.

I rose shaking from my hiding place and was about to launch into soliloquy of sorrow until I noticed his amused reaction.

"You'll make a fine scout." he said looking me over as if he was analyzing how I would perform on the battlefield.

Actually looking back on it that was probably exactly what he was thinking.

What shocked me most about him was his appearance. Most of the Sacred Band were of North African descent, with black or dark brown hair. However he looked like he had barely seen the sun outside of your usual training in the fencing arena and had blond hair, or at least it looked blond from what I could see not under his helmet. I wounded how he would have such a high position in one of our elite civilian only positions.

"Anyway," he continued "you," he pointed at the deckhands "get back to work." And turned around to me "be sure to train with the other light Cavalry, you might have snuck up on some sailors but you're still far from scout material. With that he turned and headed back down into the galley.

Thinking back to the deckhands and the Sacred Band soldiers words worked me. What was going on?

I was just about to head below deck myself when all Hell broke loose.

An ear shattering horn blast ripped through the air followed by someone screaming that every hand that could fire an arrow report to the top deck. I saw a man handing out bows and quivers filled with Mithril arrows.

I had never been the best shot but I saw the panicked look in the other soldier's eyes and ran to get a bow.

I then ran to an opening on the deck and when I looked over what I saw almost made me lose my lunch. Three serpents heads, each head being twice as large as our ship. I had wondered why half of the people ran to the other side the boat but when I turned around there was a rippling of the water and four more heads came up on our side.

"What is that!" I shouted.

The soldier beside me was looking straight ahead and answered coldly,

"Litanu, the crooked serpent."

As if that was supposed to tell me everything. At that instant the Sacred Band commander came back up and raised his sword and dropped it yelling fire. The air around me buzzed with arrows, all hitting their mark but all of them bounced off of all of the heads harmlessly. The rowers were working at their full potential but I figured that this monster would be able to out swim a loaded down half manned quinquereme. One of the heads took a bite out of front of the ship while the others went under the waves. The one that took the bite out of the ship reeled back in what looked to be pain but I didn't dwell too much on that because as far as I was concerned the six other serpents posed the more immediate danger. Still no arrow was piercing the monster's hide this led me to believe that the arrows we had Been firing weren't actually Mithril. But one quick look at them assured me that the sea serpent was just immune to any weapon. Then as quickly as it had came the final head disappeared below the waves.

"Why didn't our arrows do anything?" I had to shout to make myself heard to the man standing next to me.

"There are only two weapons that can wound her, and not even a Mithril arrow is one of them."

"What are they." I shouted

"Chaser and Driver" he replied "they're both, or at least they both were clubs that were used by Ba'al Hadad to slay Yam and Litanu originally."

"Elissa!" I heard someone shout over the chaos of the crowd I turned around to see who had called my name when three heads of Litanu broke through the ship separating the front half from the back half of which I was on. Handfuls of soldiers who had been standing close enough to where the heads had appeared were thrown up and into the sea. I quickly ran to the opposite end of the ship hoping that it wouldn't sink as fast.

The heads of Litanu started picking sailors off of the decks of the two half of the sinking ship. I pushed through the crowds of people that had also figured of that making for the highland would increase their chance of survival.

Only then did I relive that Mago and Gisco were probably still lying unconscious in the galley, that is, if the sea serpent hadn't eaten them already. I had thought about fussing down to see if they were alright witch humored me, none of us were alright. I had decided that if there was any chance of me surviving it wouldn't allow me to run down into the galley of a sinking ship.

Then another of Litanus seven heads crashed through the ship and knocked over one of the masts causing a storm of shrapnel the last thing I remembered before succumbing to blackness was getting thrown from the end of the ship along with half of the other people when another of Litanus heads crashed down on the other side of the broken ship part catapulting us into the ocean.

My advice, don't thrown into the ocean by a multi headed dragon thing. It really ruins your day. Waking up on a deserted island also isn't the best.

As I regained consciousness I stood up and opened my eyes, and saw sand and trees. I had no idea what had happened after I was flung into the sky. I assumed there must have been land ne'er to where we were.

As I turned around back to the sea to look for any other survivors, fine it was mainly to look for any supplies that might decrease the amount of time that I needed to scavenge for food. However instead of supplies I saw a sitting figure and I walked back out in the sea to see who it was.

"Gisco!" I called out. "you survived."

"Yeah, the last thing I remembered was seeing your ship approach before I slipped into unconsciousness." He said standing up and looking around "what happened I assume that something happened to the ship."

I told him what happened while he was out.

"Are their any more survivors"? He asked.

"not that I know of, I had hoped you would have seen Mago."

"No, I've barely been conscious for a couple minutes at the longest."

I sighed, I realized that us surviving was impressive, an attack of that magnitude would most likely have killed everyone on the boat.

"What are we supposed to do now"? I asked

"Well if we are to survive we should arm ourselves," he started reaching into his pocket

"What the"? He said pulling out a ballpoint pen "I didn't lose this"? He asked in bewilderment.

"Look, I know the saying "the pen is mightier than the sword but what exactly do you plan on doing with your pen"?

"Do you have to be so sarcastic all the time, seriously is it like genetic for you two. Sorry that was insensitive."he looked down, "Mago found this pen in Orthrus's cave, when its uncapped…" He said as the pen transformed into short bronze sword "it transforms"

"That's not Punic" I said grabbing the sword out of his hands.

"Yes we know, neither was our mission Orthrus is Greek, and another thing the Headpriest wasn't the one who assigned it."

"Then who had the authority."

"I was getting to that, I don't know. But it would have to be someone with influence." "I remember a conversation I had with your brother though, he thought he had some idea of what was going on.

He took another glance at the bronze sword in my hands and said "keep it, it suits you better." "We need to get going to higher ground its getting late, and I want to find a good place to rest for the night before the sun goes completely down."

I nodded as I capped the pen and pocketed it. We took our leave of the sandy beach and made our way through the forest that was before us.

A couple hours of following behind Gisco getting scraped by all sorts of plants and loosing my footing on almost any rocks that jutted out of the ground at any angle He finally stoped in a clearing that was on top of a cliff overlooking the beach that we had just been on.

Gisco looked over the edge and dryly remarked "hopefully you don't sleepwalk or you could get a rude awakening."

He found a tree and leaned against it I was about to ask him more about their voyage but before I could I realized that he was fast asleep.

"Well, I guess loosing most of you blood could take the energy out of about anyone." I said to no one. I looked over the cliff agin, only the top of the sun was visible over the horizon, and thought about all of the times I had looked out to the sea back in my old barracks room at New Carthage. The last thoughts that ran through my head before I succumbed to slumber was a promise that I would one day return to my old home.


	7. Chapter 7

**I own nothin** **g.**

 **If you couldn't tell, this is before the events of** **the Lightning Thief.**

 **this chapter will be narrated by Gisco.**

I'm always an early riser but I've never actually had slept so soundly before. Usually my sleep is interrupted by dreams or visions, and other times I stay awake worrying, but this time I awoke fully rested as the top of the sun was barely visible. I headed back down to the beach deciding to climb down the cliff instead of taking the long path we took to get up. When I finally got to the bottom I looked out to the ocean.

"Beautiful isn't it"

I spun around to see who was there and my gaze was met by the man who was in the Tophet who gave Mago and me our quest what seemed like a year ago.

"I'm annoyed that more of you didn't survive, you can't really expect to overthrow New Rome with such measly numbers."

"I wasn't planning on …"

"Of course you were" he interrupted "your Carthaginian, it's your destiny. Rebuild the old empire and challenge Rome one final time. I have faith that you can."

"But you said yourself that we couldn't even if I did want to."

"With your numbers no, it would be suicide. There are however pockets of Carthaginians and people who can see through the mist. If you can unite these people and some tribes of Celts who roam the lands, then you can."

"Can you at least answer me this? Why did we need to dispose of Orthrus"?

"All part of a greater plan, we attack Greeks, the Greek leaders who know about the Romans will think that it was the Romans and there you have it, the Romans will exhaust themselves fighting which will allow you to strike while the Iron is hot."

"Why, what good is this going to bring, why risk lives for our honor"?

The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a small dagger glistening with a silver hue.

"This is Driver. It used to be one of the clubs used by Ba'al Hadad. But Kothar changed it into something more appropriate for human use. I was going to advise the council that you be a member of the Cavalry, but with the shortage of horses being a problem I think you being a priest will be just fine."

"Thank the heavens."

"Yes, well it also is more charismatic to get people to join your cause. Back to your previous question, it will bring us back our pride and put the Carthaginians back into the game as a major player."

"Hey, look it's a poodle!"

"What" I turned around saw nothing then turned back and the man was gone leaving me on the beach holding a Mithril dagger. I turned around to head back to our makeshift camp when something in the sand caught my eye. A symbol, made in the sand. I got down on my knees to look and I somehow was able to recognize it immediately it was an ox hide, symbolizing the founder of Carthage Dido.

I thought back to the Tophet of New Carthage, I wasn't able to determine her statue then but I recognized her symbol now. I thought about it before the symbol was washed away by the incoming tide, and I decided that it was time to get back to camp before Elissa woke.

When I finally pulled myself over the cliff I noticed Elissa talking with Mathias Laterza, the captain of the Sacred Band.

"Captain Laterza, you're alive,"

Mathias turned around smiling one of those smiles that convey no emotion but are just used to be polite.

"I am glad that you survived, now even more so that your my brother."

"What!" I stumbled back, but thankfully caught my footing before I slipped off of the cliff.

"You saw the ox hide in the sand did you not"?

"Ox hide." Replied Elissa standing up.

"Yes your friend has completed his ordeal and has been chosen to be part of a clan." "Do not worry Elissa you will also partake, that is" he said with a light humorless chuckle "if you live past it."

"I still don't understand what this clan has to do with anything."

"It helps the authorities keep track of what position you are suitable for, we have selected you for the Didonian clan, the clan of our founder, that's why you carry that knife." He said pointing to my pocket that I had stored the knife in.

"I was just telling your friend here," he said gesturing to Elissa "that Mago has been put into the Barcid clan."

"What is the difference though, I mean between the clans"? I asked.

"It's simple really, the Barcids are all Military Commanders a couple examples would be Napoleon Bonaparte or Hannibal Barca. Our clan the Didonian would be full of diplomats or kings or queens or other high officials such as Churchill, William the Silent and…" continued with a sour face "Rasputin."

"Rasputin was Carthaginian"? Asked Elissa. It was the same question I was going to ask but decided against it due to his less than eager expression while mentioning it.

"It's not something we like to talk about."

"Wait, shouldn't you be in the Barcids then, I mean you being the captain of the Mounted Sacred Band."

"The Sacred Band isn't held to the same standards as common military only the suffete has power over both, and as you know we are still looking for the next suffete."

I remembered what he meant, our last suffete, judge, was assassinated. The assassination had been the work of a renegade Roman half blood. We didn't know who did it but we didn't want to elect another only to have him killed.

"We should get going, we need to reach Atlantis before noon, I have reservations for My American cousin, I don't want to miss it."

"Atlantis!" Both me and Elissa yelled at once. "and why are you going to a play now we've almost died and you want to go to a sunken island and see a play"?

"I'm sorry, I meant Atlanta. Anyway I'm off and good luck on your journey. I'm sure we'll meet again." With that he rushed to the edge of the cliff and jumped off. I ran back to see what on earth he was thinking but when I looked over I saw nothing, no body where he landed or any disturbance in the sand.

"That was weird." Elissa said appear in next to me. "Before you returned he told me to head for Virginia, he said something about in some ancient ruins there lies some sort of uh... I honestly don't remember, he talked for so long it started to seem that I hadn't gotten any sleep and just spent the entire day listening to him yak,"

"Great, the captain of the Sacred Band showed up, still alive mind you, to tell you something that might help us and you end up forgetting all of it except Virginia."

"... I found breakfast, wild berries and some sort of eggs."

"... All is forgiven."

I scraped the last of the eggs on a piece of bark, and immediately began to shovel the eggs into my mouth, that is until I remembered what a terrible cook Ellisa was and backed to the edge of the cliff to eat the rest of them. I was hungry enough to be tempted by the berries that she found but didn't trust her foraging skills any more than her cooking skills.

"We need to find out where we are, I don't want to end up dying of malnutrition."

I took out the dagger from my pocket and wrapped it in a makeshift sheath made from bits of tall grasses leaves and bark as Elissa pocketed her pen. We continued our trek up to higher ground. My legs started to burn I had never been the best stamina runner and my legs were burning two hours on. I had begun to slow down while Elissa was jumping around in front of me like she just had ingested enough sugar to fill a horse.

"You're getting tired already."

"Heh, let's just … sea who's laughing… After your little burst of … energy wears off." I responded between gasps for air.

We finally came to a clearing overlooking the island, I quickly found a tree to lean on and caught my breath.

"Your captain didn't make a sacrifice to Dagan, did he." I forced out.

"I don't remember," came Elissa's solemn reply "we were all too busy trying to load as much supplies as possible and after that the only thing on our mind was escape."

Dagan is an ancient god of the sea, but thinking back to my classes our settlement of New Carthage had the only remaining texts and recordings of him. He was the father Ba'al Hadad, the new head of the gods.

He is very, protective of his realms whether it be the sea or grain. And don't ask how a sea god got put in charge of grain, I guess it's the same as how an agricultural Titan was put in charge of time.

I was just about to rise up to continue on our way when an arrow flew into the tree I was leaning against grazing my cheek.

"Who art thou, and why does thy companion have that sword?" said a regal looking girl with what looked like a tiara pointing at Elissa.

I started to get a little freaked out. I assumed that she wasn't mortal be use of how she looked at the uncapped pen in Elissa's hands. And fired a silver arrow.

"I straightened up, "I found it in a cave, why does it matter to you."

"That is most definitely a lie you filthy boy I don't even know why I am talking with you instead of thy companion."

I started to get a little aggravated. Here some sort of thrill seeker of some sort with the ability to see through the mist and an unhealthy habit of talking in old English.

"Tell me you Greek half bloods who are your parents so I can tell my lady who to have words with when she returns to Olympus." She said drawing another arrow.

"A priest and a grape grower." replied Elissa.

The girl lowers her bow when she turned to Elissa and I was shocked, the two looked like they could be related if it weren't for a theory that I was thinking was more and more likely.

"I did not mean thy mortal parents child." She replied looking almost calmly at Elissa compared to the cold heartless glare I received. "But you Greek god parent, or Roman I suppose.

I inched my hand closer to where I stashed my dagger but was stopped when without turning around notched the arrow back on her bow and said "I was not aiming to kill the first time, drop it."

"It may be hard to believe," she continued " but those stories about the Ancient Greek and Roman gods are not false they are as Alive as we are, the only thing we now need to know is if you are Greek or Roman, or if you don't have a preference you could join me and my and my lady as a hunter."

Letting my dagger fall to the ground I turned around "We both know that, we however are not Greek or Roman, we're not even half bloods."

"Well," she said turning back to me with the same glare as before " she can still be a hunter, but you will probably die if you're Greek. The Romans have a new Rome, but they hate Greeks."

"Yeah, well that's not going to happen." I responded.

"So you are Greek."

"No but then again no one knows what we are, I could go anywhere and no one would know where we're from."

"If you're Greek or Roman that matters not to me but you possessing this blade," she said bending down and grabbing my dagger "proves that you have had some sort of contact with us before."

"I don't follow."

"Look at the blade on the knife." she said pressing the tip under my chin "see the silver, this is the same material used to make our arrows" she said bringing down the dagger, though she didn't look to pleased about doing so, " the hunters of Artemis use this type of weapon it's like if you would know the Greek or Roman cultures. Greeks use Celestial bronze, and Romans use imperial gold. We are like that except our celestial bronze looks silver."

"But it's not even…"

I was cut off when the hunter brought the tip of the dagger back under my neck.

"I must bring you two back to my lady, it pains me to postpone my hunt of Orion but thieves must be dealt with just the same."

"What if we don't want to go." said Elissa

"Then I'll shoot your friend and bring thee to Artemis concise or not." She said aiming her loaded bow at my head "get a move on I don't want this to take too much longer."

As we started our long march to wherever the girl was taking us Elissa decided to strike up a conversation with our captor, I don't think either of us were pleased about that. Obviously for different reasons entirely.

"So" she started "who are you"?

"See your friend here knows but he has chosen not to share you would…

"Oh come on, I wasn't positive," I complained "and when was I supposed to tell her, when my own dagger was cutting me."

She ignored me "I am a hunter of Artemis, we are immortal unless we die in combat which I can assure you is very rare."

"Oh come on, give me a break you accused her of thievery and now you're trying to recruit her!" I yelled in disbelief.

"No, I accused thou of thievery, she just had the misfortune of running into you and got sucked up into thy lies."

Elissa just smirked and we all kept walking to gods know where. I tried to keep track of which way we were being led so that after, if we were freed I would know which way to get back to the beach, but after just half an hour I lost all sense of direction.

I tried to start a conversation of my own with her which went something like this.

"Can you tell us where exactly we are"?

"No"

"Can you at least tell us where you're taking us"?

"No"

"I'll give you my dagger."

"What, you mean this one," she said holding it up "I already have it."

"Can I have it back"?

"No, and keep up the pace."

A few more hours of grueling hiking by the point of an arrow latter found us in a clearing where white silk tents were set up around a larger tent, I assumed that that one was Artemis's personal tent. The hunter led us into the clearing, and that's when I noticed the wolves, there were at least twelve, that I could see five of which were looking at me like how a dog would look at a steak.

"Don't worry about them for now, they'll be fed after we determine what we will do with thou."

Needles to say that made me feel a little better of about meeting her.

"Zoe" a twelve year old appeared out from behind a tent "you've returned, but this isn't Orion." She said looking at us almost disappointingly.

"No my lady, I came across these two thieves before I could continue on my way."

"Why do you suspect the hostilities."

"That one," she said pointing at me "was carrying a silver celestial bronze dagger and the girl was carrying Anaklusmos." "They would not tell me how they stole from Poseidon and came up with the story of finding it in Orthrus's cave.

The younger one stepped forward to Elissa and asked for the sword and Elissa handed it over. "The dagger." She added.

"Right here my lady." The violent one said. Giving the dagger to the younger one.

She took it out from the other ones hands and gently tossed it up in the air catching it by the handle as it came down. Then she said to me "come here. If this is truly celestial bronze and you are mortal this won't hurt at all, Zoe you said they claimed to be mortals"

"Yes, the girl did so I assumed that they both were, or she was lying either being the same."

"Then we should test them both, starting with Anaklusmos on both of them."

The violent hunter grabbed Elissa's arm a pricked her arm with the tip of the sword but she didn't yell out in pain like I knew she wouldn't.

"No blood, try the sword on him, I wasn't sure that the girl wasn't acting on threat"

During Elissa's "test" I was trying my best to not yell out and ruin my only chance of getting the younger lady on my side so I remained quiet about the fact that Carthaginians were not descendants of gods or gods just people descended from prominent Carthaginian families or the males who were left alone after their female relatives joined the hunt or the amazons. Sure we were blessed by some gods or goddesses but celestial bronze only worked on organisms with godly blood not against people who followed the gods.

That's what I thought up until the celestial bronze blade drew blood.

"Yip! What the! I bleed.

As I suspected, he's a Greek Thief." Zoe said.

"Very well," said the other one "tell us where you got this blade and your death will be painless."

"What, just because I bleed when a sword cuts me I must be in cahoots with your enemies or whatever!"

"I didn't bleed." Piped up Elissa

"You're not helping."

"Oh, wait don't you still need to test the knife."

"Oh gee thanks Elissa, let them bleed me twice."

"No she's right boy if she bleeds because of the knife then you'll just need to explain how you ran into that sword." The nice one said pointing at Anaklusmos.

"Right. I knew that."

They then proceeded to do the same thing with the knife, and lo and behold Elissa bled. The angry one, Zoe wanted to cut me but the nice one said that there would be no point. Zoe grudgingly gave me my knife back and told us to follow the nice hunter she had to check on something.

"Now I guess I should introduce myself now that we have determined that you're of no immediate threat, I am Artemis, goddess of the hunt. You," she said turning to me. "know your lineage do you."

"I assure you," I said "I know what you're thinking but I was raised by both of my biological parents and I don't know how on earth that sword made me bleed."

"Interesting," Artemis continued "three strangers none seem to be half bloods but one reacts to the swords of the ancients, and they all seem to know about the truth of the world."

"I'm sorry did you say three"? I asked her.

"Yes, a boy about your age was found unconscious with what we could only assume was a wound from a monster in a secluded lagoon, we have no idea how he got there, but in his hands was a sword of a peculiar shape, and a dagger, both from what I can tell made out of celestial bronze. The sword was a problem however since it had the same characteristics as your knife there, it glowed silver."

"Is this boy still here." Asked Elissa jumping up to Artemis but tripping on I have no clue what.

"Oof"

"You think you know this boy"? Artemis asked helping Elissa to her feet.

Suddenly I realized what she had, "yeah, he's her brother."

The tent that she led us to was larger than most of them but still smaller than hers, when we entered we were greeted by who I assumed was the medic.

"My lady" she turned to Artemis. The wound needs to be closed, I was about to give him ambrosia for the time being."

"No," said Artemis, "these three may not be half bloods, I won't risk him burning up."

"Let me try." I said stepping forward wondering what on earth I was thinking.

The medic looked at me and then Artemis.

"Let him try, whatever he I is going to try probably won't kill his friend."

"Gee thanks for the confidence booster there." I said stepping forward. When the medic unwrapped the bandages for me to look at I almost fainted, it looked like half of his upper arm was missing. I then remembered the teachings of the deities and decided that I might as well ask one of them for help, it's not like it would hurt. Thinking back to my lessons I remembered that Eshmun, Phoenician god of healing was depicted with a snake in one hand.

"Artemis," I asked "do you have any snake venom"?

"What kind of wilderness goddess doesn't"?

"Yeah, I guess that would be obvious. Can I use some of it"?

"Sure, Phoebe."

The medic, whose name was apparently Phoebe, got up and pulled out a small container from below the bed.

"Do you have any wine." This was always weird for me but every Carthaginian God expected to be sacrificed wine, I suppose that's what they had gotten used to back when Carthage practically had wine as a monopoly."

"No but we do have grapes if that would work." Said Artemis grabbing a vine of the said fruit

"Sure that should be fine." I said glad to be able to look away from the wound even for a little bit.

Then my hands took over, I pulled a grape off of the vine and peeled it using my knife, next I took the cork out of the poison vial and set it aside and netted the peeled grape into it. Then I took the grapes peel and laid it in the center of the large wound. Finally I grabbed the vial and using my knife mixed the grape into the poison.

"What on earth are you doing "? Asked the hunter called Phoebe.

"This should be enough to let Eshmun do the rest." I said more to myself

"That name rings a bell." Said Artemis.

"Yes there are many connections between Carth…" I stopped myself before I said anything more to endanger me and my friends.

Artemis studied me chick made a little uncomfortable "I know we're your from, Phoebe you are released."

"Yes my lady." With that I was left alone with the unconscious form of my friend a Greek goddess and…

"Your friend ran away after seeing the blood of her brother." Artemis said as if it were the most common thing in the world. "Tell me, what is a Carthaginian doing in these parts"? Don't look so surprised, I run into many of your kind during my hunts, fear not for I am the only one who knows of your kinds survival.

I turned my attention back to my friend "then why the suspicion on your part."

"I had to keep the ruse up for the sake of the other hunters, you see if any of my hunters other than those who came from Carthaginian settlements found out and were to break their vow, then problems would arise."

I realized and continued the treatment of pouring the concoction over the wound.

"So there are others, settlements, I mean." I asked my hands still spreading the concoction over the injury

"There were many," she replied "something has happened though, there are only a few that I haven't heard have been destroyed by monsters or uprisings, would I be wrong assuming that the same fate has befallen yours"?

"I need fresh bandages," I said looking down " you would be assuming correct I come from New Carthage, the new one anyway, I had never heard of any others."

"Yes, well that is to be expected" Artemis said rising. "Many of your kind came over to the Americas latter then either of the Greeks or Romans, there have been a couple settlements in the new world though that precede all of the others." Artemis said as she materialized clean bandages out of the air. "I assume you have heard of Roanoke."

"Of course," I said taking the bandages and began rewrapping Mago's arm up. "It was the first English settlement of the new world."

"Correct, but it also was the first major ancient culture that created a new city in their name." "They were wary of the increasing number of Roman half bloods In Britain so they left. Another less famous, but more incredible crossing in my opinion was that of the survivors of the Punic Wars. Some Carthaginians and others Gauls managed to cross the Atlantic and ended up in south and North America.

"I remember seeing something like that on the History Channel, I depicted it as utter ludicrous though. How could even the best sailors back then cross the Atlantic in a trireme"? I asked stepping happily away from my unconscious friend.

"Hard work and determination," Artemis said, "how do you think the indigenous people of Australia and Oceania made it to their islands. Anyway, there is only one settlement of Carthaginians that I remember not having been destroyed."

"Where"?

"Oh, somewhere that will remind you of your ancient home probably. Tons of manufacturing, commercial districts, some of the finest public transportation on this side of the Atlantic, and it's everything going east, west, south, and north goes through it. Plus," she added with a smirk "enough corrupt politicians to remind you of Ancient Carthage. Chicago."

"On a more serious note," she left the tent and beckoned to me to follow. She led me to the large tent where Elissa was with another hunter.

"How is he"? She asked "he should be fine "as long as Eshmun actually likes the meager sacrifice." I muttered under my breath.

"Now that we're all here," said Artemis "you can all tell me how you came to possess Anaklusmos"?

So we told them the same thing we told Zoe.

"Most troubling indeed," said Artemis, "I have a request to ask of you, take that blade and safely deliver it to the Greek camp. I must continue my hunt. Oh you do know where the Greek camp is right"?

Yes New York Long Island."

"Good, hopefully your friend will be able to travel by tomorrow morning. Until then I will have one of the hunters provide you with your own tent for tonight."

Thank you, but that won't be necessary, I can sleep fine in the forest." I said taking my leave of the goddess.

I left the camp not wanting to feel imposing I figured Elissa would be able to set up a tent herself. I walked through the camp looking hesitantly at the wolves that were still encircling the camp and continued on to a bed of grass that could be easily made into a makeshift bed. My dreams that night were all jumbled, I was used to having clear dreams, but lately they have seemed to be getting more chaotic. A royal figure holding a lance riding a lion, that was most definitely the weirdest part, a small city I recognized the architecture immediately, it was roman. A large forum and a senate building. It looked almost exactly how I pictured Ancient Rome looked so I wasn't sure if I was a vision of past Rome or just a rebuilt model of it. The port however was feeble, it only had one Ship that I could tell of and it was a rowboat but I was sure because a canvas that was covering it had the SPQR on it. "So" I thought "this is new Rome." My dream continued getting weirder I was headed straight into the ocean. Traveling out and deeper into the vast blueness there was a ringing sensation in my head and then a raspy voice out,

"Don't be fooled young priest, you have more enemies then you are aware of. Rome is not the only one that would wish the utter destruction of Carthage, you have to keep your eyes tuned on the earth. The Greek Titans are biding their time waiting for a prophecy, but they are getting restless, and the prophecy's deadline is approaching. You will need to keep your eyes on any Barcid, for they will sow the seeds of your destruction."


	8. Chapter 8

**I own nothing.**

 **Dont worry, those of you who are waiting for the actual Percy Jackson characters will be pleased soon.**

 **Not in this chapter though.**

 **This chapter is back to Mago**

 **Quick side note, for all of those who are woundering where I got the names from.**

 **Mago Barca was Hannibal Barca's brother. Hence Mago**

 **Gisco was one Hannibal Barca's Captains in the Secon Punic war. Hence Gisco**

 **Elissa was another name of queen Dido. Hence Elissa.**

 **I am sorry if you already figured this out for wasting your time.**

The last thing I remember was reaching for something to hit the snake head that was trying to eat me. Grabbing the falcata that I had found in Orthrus's cave I swung upward catching the monster of guard. He reeled back, and if I could tell he looked surprised. That is, if giant sea serpents can look surprised. I remembered something like it in a statue dedicated to Yam, god of the sea, a seven headed serpent was at the base considering the havoc that was upstairs I assumed that the soldiers were taking care of the rest.

I watched as the head of the serpent retreated below the waves. I shakily rose to my feet clenching the sword hilt. However my timing couldn't have been worse as soon as I got to my feet one of the serpents heads ripped through the ship a few feet from where I stood, the force was so great that it sent flying backwards as another one of the heads came towards me I reached for my falcata but instead I grabbed the knife that I had found in Orthrus's cave. I contemplated on what to do next, I mean even if I was able to throw the knife and somehow subdue the beast the head would just retract back, but right now the head was stopping the water from rushing into the boat, but I figured that leaving the head in the boat would just slow down the death rate until another head would destroy the boat completely. So, I decided to do the single most stupid thing I have ever done in my short stupid life, which is saying a lot, I quickly hobbled my way over to the creature's neck and brought the knife down.

I at least expected a howl of pain or something but what I got surprised me to say the least.

The knife bounced harmlessly out of my hands after not making as much as a scratch on the monster. Unfortunately, I did get its attention, I remembered back from the stories of old that it was one of Yams pets and supposedly able to kill with just a look, needless to say I didn't stay around to find out, when its head started to move down through the wreckage of the ship causing shrapnel to fly everywhere and it split the boat causing both halves to dip down to the water I figured that it would be safer to jump out of one of the shrapnel holes then to get any closer to the monster the last thing that I was aware of was a sharp pain in my shoulder, whether it be from a piece of shrapnel or one of the monster's teeth I had no idea.

I remember waking up in some sort of makeshift bed. I spent time imagining it was of the "medic tents" used by battle reenactors to store the actor's equipment and costumes. Another way to supply jobs for the citizens of New Carthage with jobs was to become a reenactor, you would still be expected to fight if the times were dire but their main job was to entertain tourists, an awful job I always thought. Except that's really all I could do considering it was pitch black in the tent, the only light that came in was from the moon and stars.

I shakily stood up, wincing as I brushed my arm against the side of the tent. I stepped outside the feel of the cold air without sea mist caused some joy. Even with being a Carthaginian, sea travel had never been my favorite and my past journey had reminded me why. Things never go according as planned, that's not what necessarily gets to me, it's that planning for sea travel needs to take into consideration the time that it would take for your plan to go into effect, making navel ambushes even more costly.

I noticed that I was surrounded by tons of other white silk tents like the one I had just been recovering in. The one in the center was the largest and caught my eye when I noticed the outline of two people inside that seemed to be having a conversation, curiosity took over me and I approached. I thought I heard one say,

"Artemis you do realize that they will not survive if the gods do not intervene." It was almost a regal sounding voice, a sort of accent it was too faint to place but it was definitely not American.

I had no idea who any of the people inside the tent were and I really didn't want to know what they were talking about. I crouched down and crawled forward to get a better idea of what was going on."

"If the gods were to intervene there will be bloodshed, all three of the factions at war with each other, such destruction the world hasn't seen since the Napoleonic wars." Came a much more juvenile voice almost that of a young teenager.

I started getting chills, I remembered from teachings that the Napoleonic Wars were fought between all of the factions, the Greeks were the Americans the Egyptians were the Ottomans the Romans were the British the Norse were the Prussians which left the French being Carthage.

Before I could reminisce on the pass any longer I heard a movement inside of the tent. I didn't want anyone knowing I was spying so I quickly crouched down behind a bush.

"You are right about one thing though," the younger one said, "there is definitely an increase in monster activity, but Yam, isn't he still trapped in the underworld"?

"He is," I had gotten the accent down to either a high class English women or a slight French accent. "But with promises of power do you not think someone would revive him"?

"I don't know; let us pray that both of them stay under Hades's and Melqart's watch."

"Who does a goddess pray to"?

"I don't know." With those parting words a glimmer came from the tent and the younger of the people was alone in the tent. I headed back to the tent I had woken up in and quietly got back into the bed, careful not to put any weight on my side. I replayed the conversation over and over again in my head and why I was with a Greek goddess, what had she meant when she said that some people would die, but by then I had decided that they were talking about me. Who were they talking about I wondered. Why bring up Hades in a discussion about Melqart and Yam and I slowly drifted off to slumber.

The next time I woke up was a lot less mysterious. As soon as I stepped out of the tent I was treated by Gisco.

"Glad you're awake; I was worried that Eshmun would forsake you."

"Your faith in the gods always amasses me. How did manage to be a priest in the first place"?

"Who told you I just found out myself yesterday"?

I stepped back furrowing my eyebrows. "I don't know, it just sort of came out. Anyway what's going on here" why are we in a giant camp full of teenage girls"? I asked looking around. "The last thing I remember was waking up on a ship in time to say hello to seven headed sea serpent.

Gisco paled as I mentioned the serpent and turned away, "come on, Artemis will want to know that your awake." He said leading me to the big tent.

"Hey, Gisco," I stopped, "how many others survived"?

Gisco kept walking. I sprinted to catch up with him anxiety filling my mind. "Did any make it"? I added in a meek voice.

"Your sister is somewhere around here, we found each other pretty soon after the crash, captain Laterza survived, he has somewhere to be and… Yeah that's all we know of.

I could tell he was holding something back, but I wasn't about to question him about it then. Gisco called out "my lady, Mago has woken."

"Both of you come in" came the younger voice that I had heard earlier.

We entered and I was thoroughly impressed on how cozy a tent could look in the center stood a girl of around twelve who I assumed was Artemis, Greek goddess of the hunt.

"While you were unconscious," she said pointing at me "I talked with both your sister and your friend here. This night I also was visited by another guest, I have come to the conclusion that you should stop in Virginia, someone lives there that could help you deliver the sword; don't tell them anything other than that I sent you. However," she added "with Mago still wounded and Elissa unpredictable, you will have to protect them both." She said looking at Gisco. "Your elementary manic and a dagger won't be able to cut it, so I was given this to give to you. She pulled out a silver bow it looked like the ones the hunters carried except this bow was both silver and gold looking like they were intertwined together to form a single bow.

"The other guest presented me with this bow; it is not a hunter's bow. If we were to go into its history however you would be here for at least two more days. Another thing does not show the sword to anyone besides the camp activities director. If you keep it concealed you shouldn't have any problems with Greek monsters or half bloods."

"Thank you." Gisco said.

"Hold on that is not all; give this to your sister." Artemis said giving me a silver hunting knife. "You should carry the sword and I would not see a young maiden unarmed. It is made of celestial bronze not Mithril. Finally I have for you some provisions; it should be enough to get you to civilization." She said tossing a back pack down in front of us.

"Thanks," Gisco said "where is Elissa"?

"You will find her ready outside of the tent I've had my Lieutenant get her and tell her the news, and there she is." She said as Elissa walked in flanked by Zoe and another hunter.

"You sure took your time brother."

It's nice to know I can always get a friendly greeting from her.

"I thought you were going to be a goner."

Yup she is full of optimism.

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence." I replied back, probably a little too harshly.

"Whoa, even I wasn't sure that you were going to pull through when I saw that amount of blood."

"On my shoulder," I asked "do you know how I got it"?

"There seemed to be an older wound and a fresh wound," said Artemis "the new wound was caused by alligator the old one was probably done by a piece of sharp wood."

"An alligator"? I asked.

"Yes, they are most common in the Everglades."

"That's where we are the Everglades"? Gisco asked.

"Yeah, some of the hunters were showing me around. It's beautiful. We should live here." Elissa said wheeling around to face me.

"No."

"Yeah I know, some of the hunters already told me what's going on, still it would be kind of nice, don't you think Gisco."

Gisco who had been studying his new bow for quite some time looked up confused and said something intelligent like,

"Uh, um, no, yes what.'

Elissa just glared at him and I thanked Artemis for finding me and after Elissa was done personally saying by to every hunter we began hiking on a backcountry trail that one of the hunters showed us. Walking through the Everglades was tiring. Its one thing when the atmosphere is humid and you can feel the sweat bead up on your skin, but walking through marshes where mud cakes on any area of exposed skin made me want to stop and hire an airboat. Alas, we were in the middle of nowhere and no airboat driver would be idiotic enough to travel here.

"Honestly, why is it that both the Greeks and Romans live in such pristine conditions compared to this"? Whined Gisco. The Romans get nice California, tamed and built up. The Greeks and Egyptians get New York, cool and built up, and us the underdogs get stuck with the marshes of frontiers." He said as he swatted a mosquito.

"Hey, look at it this way. When we do finally get out of this marsh and to Chicago we'll have a much better position to spy on both the Greeks and Romans." I said trying to cheer Gisco up.

"Why would we want to spy on them and blast these mosquitoes! You would think something here would eat at least half of the ones that have landed on my arm all at once."

"I don't know," I said looking up, I then noticed a couple of birds flying over us with what seemed to be gold beaks. "Hey,"I said "you got you wish, birds."

"Nah that isn't enough to put a dent in this population. Go get your friends!" He shouted picking up a muddy rock and threw it at them. Of course all of the mud just had to end up flying off the rock and onto my face.

"Thank you very much now we don't have any birds and my face is covered with mud." I said wiping the brown gunk off of my face.

Elissa just sort of chuckled and continued walking through the muck. Now I don't know what qualifies as a path but I am pretty sure what came ahead wouldn't be classified as one in the loosest of terms. A stream was running straight along the path and the water seeped into the already disgusting ground. Self reminder for next time, remember that very soft mud will act on anything that goes in it with suction now normally this wouldn't have been a problem, more like a minor inconvenience of having to try to make sure our shoes didn't come off of our feet but that was also when Gisco's Bird friends came back in numbers.

"Try to find high ground," I called out more narrating my own thoughts then trying to help anyone. There were a couple of pieces of bark that were lying in the mud. I don't know if some kind hickey had deliberately put them in place but I wasn't about to question good fortune.

Already having taken my advice Elissa was almost out of the Mud when behind us Gisco missteps and end breaking the piece of bark that he had stepped on.

"I could use a little help here," he cried out. He had one foot softly on a rock while his other leg was shin deep in the mud. I started to maneuver my way back to help him when I heard some sort of metallic clicking sound. Originally I paid it no heed and figured that it was something in the provision back that Artemis had given us. When I got within arm's reach as Gisco I noticed a large grouping of birds I was finally glad that the mosquitoes had stopped biting but was to buses deleting with the mud to pay it any thought. I quickly grabbed a fallen tree branch from the mud and held it out to Gisco who eagerly grabbed it. I started pulling back him out of the mud but then my sister had to ruin everything.

Okay, she wasn't the one who actually did anything but she was the one who made me aware of the second situation that was going on.

"Brother, those are Stymphalian birds! We have to get out of here!"

With one final tug I freed Gisco from his muddy prison and looked up.

"Crud Gisco can you walk"?

"Yeah"

"Good because we should probably skedaddle."

"Right" he said eagerly jumping away from the massive cloud of hungry birds.

We started sprinting away from the birds as fast as it was able to without getting sucked down to the bottom of this bog.

"Ow" I screamed as one of the birds bit me.

"Be proud brother you're now part of the natural food chain of the Everglades." Elissa smirked.

"Technically he was before with the alligator, and I don't think these birds originated here." Wheezed Gisco.

"Shut up and keep running!" I yelled.

Then an idea popped up in my head. Just throw the mud at the birds. I know what you're thinking, "that's brilliant why didn't you do that earlier"? Because I was running away from them. An equally valid option when being chased by hungry Stymphalian birds.

Needles to say my plan had some unexpected consequences, primarily it involved me stop running. Also it would only affect a small number of birds, and it wouldn't even kill them. However the one good thing that came out of it was that I lost my balance and toppled down into the muck. I decided that I would meet my end with dignity; I would lie down in mud and let birds strip the meat off of my bones. However it never came to that. It appears that birds don't like meat that was caked in mud. That or their little bird brains couldn't decipher mud covers human from, well, mud.

I thought I might as well stay down like that for a little while just to make sure they weren't laying an ambush when I couldn't hear them, but the need to breath came around.

When I rose I was greeted by both Gisco and my sister both covers with mud.

"Next time I make the plans." Said Elissa.

After cleaning up in the next creek we finally made it to a small little town. We looked around trying to find out where we were. We finally asked some old man and he looked at us like we were crazy and responded

"Everglades's city."

I tried to make out more but he was mumbling under his breath something about young kids who should probably be in school. We left him quickly after that.

We were looking for a way to get somewhere closer to our destination, and a little food would be nice. I had remembered that America's Amtrak trains have food so even though I knew it was a long shot we started to look for the nearest train station, the problem of how we would pay for it didn't seem to hit anyone yet.

We finally found a train station and entered the lobby, and that's when it hit us that we had no money.

"Do you have any money"?

"No." Said Gisco "and I spent all of my shekels on lunch back at the market. Why did you order so much if can't afford it anyway"?

"Hey guys yelling at… O who am I kidding, what were you thinking? Let's go take the train even though we're all flat broke!"

I'll let you guess who said that.

"I need to go to the restroom," Gisco said, "don't kill each other while I'm gone."

We stood around waiting for Gisco to return, this was the first time that I had been alone with my sister since the day I headed out on my quest. I had a feeling Gisco did this on purpose though.

"Um"

Always a great way to start a conversation.

"I'm going to go get some food from the vending machine, you want anything"? I asked awkwardly.

"We don't have money."

"Right."

"Great we're in." Said Gisco coming back from the ticket line waving three tickets.

"You had money and you didn't tell us!" I yelled.

"Relax, I still don't have any, I got these with cunning."

"Are they legal"? I asked not that I really cared at this point but I had to put up an image for my sister.

"Are gifts from gods legal"? He answers back "two sleeping cars to…" He said looking at them "Richmond."

"This train goes to Sanford Florida." I stated

Gisco turned his nose up at me and said "don't look a gift horse in its mouth."

"Beware of Greeks bearing gifts." I mumbled.

"I'm not Greek. Now hurry up we're boarding."


	9. Chapter 9

**I own nothing now I really mean it if anyone wants to use any character for anything I would be more than pleased to allow it. You know to spread the word about Carthage.**

 **I have decided that this will be part one in a series. I have also decided that I will branch out from the original story on alternate timelines kind of like Fire Emblem Awakening. I will tell when and where these alternate timline stories originate on the original timline. However I have it all planed out. Alternate timelines will take part in diffrent Percy Jackson books letting the Carthaginians meet the others in the the Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus. With the meeting in the Argo and the battle between Camp Jupiter and Camp Half Blood.**

 **If you didn't catch that I have a surprise for you in this chapter.**

Gisco and I flopped down on our chairs finally we were moving without killing ourselves again. I was curious about how Gisco had attained the tickets but right now all I wanted to do was get something in my stomach and sleep.

"I think I'll visit the lounge car, do you want anything"?

"No, I can wait until dinner; I signed us up for a six thirty time slot, is that good"?

"Yeah, it's fine" I said closing the door.

Now I was never good on a boat and sadly moving on a train required much of the same skills as maneuvering on a boat.

"Excuse me," I said bumping into a young lady.

"Oh, it's you," came a sophisticated voice, almost the same one that I had heard talking to Artemis in the night.

She defiantly looked out of place wearing a long purple dress. I wondered how she could even move wearing it, especially on a train. Her long black hair tied back with some sort of tiara looking headband. I then realized I was probably staring and started to back away.

"Sorry mam,"

"Hold on, why are you leaving, we have much to discuss in such a short amount of time and you don't have any money. You will not last a day without my help."

"Who are you and why do you know that I'm broke"?

"Easy," she said beckoning me to follow her through the train cars "I was the one who gave your friend your tickets. I was also the one who gave Artemis the bow that your same friend has. And as for your first question I am the goddess of Carthage, Tanit.

"But why are you here"? I asked.

She pointed down a stairway "I am here to buy you food. But if you refer to why I am on the train it is simple. I was intending to speak with my son but you will have to do."

"Your son"? I asked.

"Yes the Greeks aren't the only ones who can sire demigod children; it just takes a mortal host in our cases since we are not fully awake."

"So," I said trying to wrap my mind around this disturbing fact "your Gisco's biological mother or something like that"? I asked grabbing a bag of combos.

"Something like that. But why did you assume it was Gisco"? She asked eyes smoldering with a purple flame. "You truly aren't aware of your own religion, do you think we are just some spirits floating around who created once and now just disappeared. We are all still very much active." She said as she materialized a handful of gold shekels.

I muttered out an apology and asked if the Shekels would work for payment. I immediately wished I hadn't. Her glare intensified as she waved her hand over them and they all turned into twenty dollar bills.

"I hate this culture even more than the Romans, and that's saying something, take them all I need to return somewhere where they don't use plastic Monopoly money." She said disappearing in a flash of light leaving a hologram of her sign shining for a couple of moments. I quickly took the cash and paid for the snacks and departed back for my room.

"How did you steal that" came an amused voice out of my sister's cabin across from ours "I thought you were out of money."

"I thought that to, "added Gisco, "but nice young lady's always give young men shopping money."

I was about to tell him that that nice young lady he was talking about was infinitely older than him and his mom but that would sound weird if it didn't come out of her own mouth. Heck, it sounded weird just now in my head.

I remember talking to different priests about the Carthaginian deities, supposedly only priests were able to fully communicate with gods. I had no idea if Tanit was a special case because she was the patron goddess of every Carthaginian. One thing I was sure about was that even with some similarities between gods, the gods of Olympus and our gods were as different as fish and mangos.

First of all we had been taught that the god that most likely represented Zeus or Jupiter was Ba'al Hadad, lord of the sky and rain. He was also the king of the gods so there was that.

Secondly Tanit was the Patron Goddess of Carthage herself along with her consort Ba'al Hammon was also a goddess of war, mainly against Invading armies. Now if you've finished reading the Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus books than you'll know how uh temperamental the Greek gods can be, like Zeus or Hades, or some Gods are playful and laid back like Poseidon and Dionysus. Carthaginian gods on the other hand never enjoy wasting time, their business men basically.

This was what really confused me though why would the Patron goddess of Carthage waist her time on some measly train? Surely she had better things to do with her time.

"Hey, they called six thirty time slots are you coming or not"? Gisco's voice broke me out of my trance. The food was great, or as great as anything can be while made on a train. The dining car was full so we had to share our booth with some middle aged man. Now normally I would have been fine with this but sitting next to Gisco I realized how weird this must have looked. Two college aged boys and a fifteen year old girl traveling alone on an Amtrak. I suppose it looked better than if we were going the other way.

After our enjoyable meal of lasagna Gisco headed back to our cabin I quickly followed after paying the tip and followed by Elissa. I sat for a couple minutes then turned my gaze outside, watching the scenery as it flew by, palm trees, tiny little villages, and the occasional fruit stand. What really caught my attention was something more on the godly side of things. I had to rub my eyes, I was sure that my sleep deprivation for about, um, thirteen hours was catching up with me when I saw centaurs in party hats prancing around with paint ball guns and those "we're number one" styrofoam fingers. We quickly passed out of Florida and into Georgia.

Finally I lost count where we were and the car attendant came to make the beds. Now this would be the time that I would normally go down to the bathroom and brush my teeth and change. However, I had nothing. No pajamas and no tooth brush.

"Hey, Gisco what did you do with that bag Artemis gave you"? I asked hopefully.

"I threw it away;" he responded "taking a muddy wet backpack on a public train has to be crossing some line of public transportation. But don't worry I have most everything in my pockets."

"What was in there"? Came Elissa's voice, who exited her cabin to allow the attendant to make her bed.

"Nothing of that much importance it was more of way to keep the…" His eyes widened. "The sword safe. I forgot to take the pen out of the outside pocket!" He yelled.

"You what!" I screamed.

"Great, now that we had one Greek goddess friend we have to go and fail her." Elissa's voice was driving with sarcasm.

"So now what"? He asked

"I don't know" I replied "but check your pockets, maybe you absent mindedly took it out." I said.

He shot his hands into his pockets and a surprised look spread across his face.

"I have it, it's still here." He said pulling the pen out. "But I'm sure I forgot it."

"Well, we can figure that out latter, right now I just want to sleep." Elissa said.

"I also have three toothbrushes a granola bar and an empty packet of fruit snacks." Gisco said.

"Empty." Replied Elissa.

"What, I was hungry."

"More importantly,"I asked, "why on earth did you think it was a good idea to put all three of the tooth brushes in your pockets"?

"Take it or not. I don't care."

After all of that it was almost two when I finally got in the lower bunk. Rolling across the tracks with Gisco snoring on the top bunk. I wounded how he did it. The guy had barely been up there for two minutes and he was already out cold.

I don't know if you've ever experienced anything like the sleep after a brutal day finally being able to lie down and catch your breath. I still couldn't sleep; instead my mind drifted off to wonder about completely random things like, why did onions make people cry or if you were at the North Pole and actually put a pole in the ground there, would it be the North Pole North Pole. Finally the last thing that drifted through my sleep deprived brain was why the room attendant needed to make both beds in Elissa's room.

The next day we finally made it to Richmond.

"Ok, what exactly are we supposed to be doing here? We need to deliver the sword to camp half blood." I asked confused.

"Artemis also said that someone in Richmond could help us with that." Gisco said looking around the train station."

"Yeah, but how are we going to know who this person is"? Asked Elissa.

"Easy," I responded, "we look for a guy fighting an acid breathing dragon."

If only I would have known, that's how we did find him.

"I don't like Richmond we should find him and get out then." Scowled Gisco. "This was Roman territory back during the Civil War." He looked around like he thought that we were going to be ambushed in a train station by dead confederates. Which wouldn't have been the strangest thing to happen to us? We decided to check out the nearest restaurant. You know, purely because a lot of people go there.

"I'll have the Ruben, and a glass of lemonade."

Ok sue us, we were hungry.

While waiting for our dinner I pulled out a map that I had gotten back at the train station.

"We should try some historical landmark, if the person we're looking for is either a half blood or Carthaginian they would most like be here for some sort of quest."

"That or they've been led there by their godly parents, yes." Responded Gisco.

"So, where do we start"? Asked Elissa.

"How about," I said scanning the map for any place that stood out "Petersburg National Battlefield."

"Its twenty seven miles away, we're going to need to take some sort bus or taxi."

Everyone turned to me.

"Oh come on, I don't have enough for everything. We should ask for a ride."

"From who"? Questioned Elissa.

"Hold on," said Gisco "Benedict Arnold was well respected by Athtar, he burned Richmond, so he would still have some sway here."

"Who is Athtar again"? Asked Elissa

"God of politics." he answered looking uncomfortable. As I was saying though he should be able to give us some sort of transportation, does anybody have anything to sacrifice to him?

I dug into my pockets and came up with a gold shekel. One of the dollars had changed.

"I have a shekel." I said placing it on the table.

"Good," he said grabbing it "oh waiter can I have a corn dog to go and then the bill please." He asked our waiter as he passed by.

"Sure thing" the waiter responded.

"What was that about"? Elissa asked.

"Back in the old days Athtar would accept dogs for sacrifices, I don't think the amount of dogs willing to go through with that is high, so I assumed his taste has adapted since then."

After having paid for our meal we quickly found a secluded area in order to keep wandering eyes away from us while we performed an ancient ritual. Gisco started chanting something that I couldn't understand when he laid the offering down.

I couldn't believe how he seemed to just learned being a priest over a night. Your average Carthaginian would be able to tell that he was still an armature by the look of exhaustion that overcame him but nonetheless he was still able.

Finally after the chanting was done the shekel seemed to melt over the hot dog until it looked like a golden hot dog. I know, I'm just Mr. Hyperbole. Then the hot dog expanded, then it grew legs and rose up growing a mane along its neck and hooves on its legs. Finally there was a full fledged horse with golden fur that glistened in the warm sun of the southern state. I was speechless.

"That's it." Gisco said collapsing.

"Whoa" I said catching him. "That took a lot out of you."

"Thanks I'm fine, it was more of the shock of seeing it actually work."

I knew he was lying but I didn't push him.

"So, all three of us will ride on one horse." Elissa said in a sour tone. "The least you could do was at least get a carriage as well then if it wasn't too hard."

"Elissa!"

"Sorry, but still we won't all fit."

"Not to worry!" Came a voice from further down the street. "I've heard your dilemma and I'm here to help." It was with such a strong French accent that I almost didn't comprehend what he said. "Come with me," the man dressed in what I thought had to be a reenactor's outfit said as he led the horse down the road.

"Who are you exactly again"? I asked.

He responded with "I am your friend with a cart."

He led us to an open courtyard where there was indeed a cart. It was really poorly made but I decided not to bring this up.

"In you go." He said helping us in. I finally found a bale of hay to use as a seat with Gisco used as a back rest. Elissa Just decided to plop down in the middle of the cart. The man then hitched the cart to the horse and jumped on the horse expertly.

"So where are you three headed"?

"Petersburg National Battlefield." Gisco replied.

" Ah good ole Petersburg, lovely time it was."

"Wait you were there." Elissa asked shocked.

"Of course," he said turning around and winking at her. "Goodness gracious, it's been too long since I've last driven one of these" he said materializing a whip out of thin air. With it he brought it down on the horse and we took off.

Now I had never actually ridden that much outside of what was required for basic training but I was sure I had never gone this fast. As I looked over the edge of the cart I noticed why I probably had never ridden a horse this fast, on a road we were passing cars. I also really hoped that the mist was covering this so it didn't look like an ancient horse buggy was going faster than a car.

"Who are you really"? I shouted to our driver.

"We used to use elephants for chariots you know," he yelled back, he was either ignoring me or he couldn't hear me I was about to yell again when Gisco pulled me back.

"Hold on I actually want to hear this."

"But then we decided hey let's forget the chariot and just use the elephants. They were quicker that way and it allowed for more intimidation." He yelled pulling up alongside a pickup truck. "Don't worry only. Couple minutes longer." He yelled back.

"And we're here!" He yelled again. Pulling into a parking spot that looked like it was for bus. "I need to do this more often," he smiled cheekily then his smile turned upside down though "but they've stopped using my favorite breeds, I'll have to talk to the boss about. Anyway have a nice stay or whatever." He said eagerly ushering us out of the cart. "Crud I'm late, I promised I'd be on time next time, oh well." And with that he simply vanished.

We stood there a while wondering what on earth had just happened. Finally Elissa asked what we were all wondering.

"What the hey was that all about"?

"I don't know," I answered. Now let's get going, the sooner we find this guy the sooner we can start uniting the scattered tribes to retake New Carthage."

"Yeah!" Elissa shouted a little too energetic. That's when a family stared at us weirdly. Two parents and one daughter about seven. What really caught my attention though was the way she was staring at the bow strapped on Gisco's back.

"Mommy" I heard her ask, "Why does that man have a bow strapped to his back"?

I got nervous, how could she see through the mist I started to think that maybe the mist was losing its power along with Carthage. In that case I thought then there would be no place safe for Carthaginians. But my fees were soon extinguished when the mother looked at us and back at her daughter patting her red hair and said "That isn't a bow silly that's a backpack."

We all breathed a sigh of relief and headed towards the battlefield which was an open field surrounded by dense forests. We spent a while just wandering around the battlefield trying our best to avoid tourist families.

"Something isn't right here." I said nervously looking around to make sure we weren't being followed."

"You right about that," answers my sister. "What were the confederate generals thinking during this battle."

I decided not to honor her statement with an answer. But the more I thought about everything that had happened leading up… Well as we were going to find out my suspicions were spot on.

"Hey, that kid there," Gisco whispered pointing at a young blonde boy of about ten. Why is he out here alone. I don't know where his parents would be."

"Yeah, well, that's probably the same thing everyone is thinking about us, especially Elissa." I responded not really noticing the gravity of the situation.

"No, really I think…"I turned to him, he was never one to be without words and saw where he was looking at and I had to catch my breath. The boy had unsheathed a bronze sword that I immediately recognized as celestial bronze.

He was slowly walking into the woods, with a scared look on his face. I thought about calling out but I decided that would probably just spook him. So instead I motioned for Elissa and Gisco to follow the bow while I skirted around the perimeter making sure the area was secure.

I unsheathed my falcata and crouched down heading to a hill. When I turned back to check on my friends progress I realized I had no vision of them. I turned back around trusting that they would be able to tail a nine year old without my help. I was about to continue on my way when I felt a sting on my left shoulder, I of course blamed it on my not fully recovered injury until a young voice turned me around.

"Drop your knife." Said a quavering voice.

I turned around lowering my falcata to the ground as my gaze was met by that of the ten or nine year olds that I had just seen.

"Drop it." He repeated jabbing his sword harder into my shoulder.

This is when it secured to me. The sword should be passing straight through me right now but I could feel the blade reopening my old shoulder wound. However before he pressed his blade farther into me I decided that I should lay down my sword.

"All right," I said laying down my falcata "I'm putting it down."

He then started spitting out questions "What are you? Why are you here? Who told you about me? Was it my father"?

I responded as quickly as I could to avoid more blade entering my arm.

"I am a human, trying to find someone, if you're the someone I've been told about than Artemis and no."

He did nothing keeping his sword pressed against my shoulder, finally I spoke up.

"Do you think you can put your sword away"?

He looked down and around and finally lowered his sword.

"Fine, you can also tell your friends they can come out."

"Oh that's fine," said Gisco emerging we were just looking at um the flowers over on younger hill. He said pointing.

"Yup."Elissa said nodding.

"You're like me"? The young boy asked.

"Yes," Gisco replied as I bent down to get my sword and strapped it back in its sheath. "Sorry about the whole stalking you thing, but you know, you can't be sure who your friends are and who wants to kill you. Gisco said extending his hand.

"Gisco the fifth or Gisco Anderson." The young boy hesitantly threw down his blade and took Gisco's hand and shook.

"Luke Castellan, pleased to meet you."


	10. Chapter 10

**I own nothing.**

 **I was going to make the red haired girl at the battlefield be Rachel but that wouldn't work. I made the girl be seven, and that would mean that Annabeth had already run away which would mean Luke would be much older, so it's jus some random girl.**

"I need your help." Were Luke's next words to us? "See that hill over there." He said pointing to a hill. "I was using the bunker in it as a temporary structure until some sort on dragon decided to make its home in it."

"So you want us to kill the dragon."

"Or just get it out of my bunker, yeah." Luke said. "Four demigods should be able to do it."

"Can you actually use that sword in a fair fight?" I asked pretty sure this kid was more specialized in stealth than toe to toe fighting."

"I'm not a rookie." He said shifting his gaze away from me.

After deciding that if the bunker were the ruins that the Sacred Captain was talking about all three of us decided to take a look at the bunker and dragon.

"Try to keep all weapons sheathed," I whispered as we approached the hill "I don't want to alert the dragon to us before we know what we're dealing with."

As soon as we all got to the base of the hill I whispered for the others to stay behind while I inched closer to the bunkers opening on the other side of the mound. One thing that I hate about Virginia is the dry grass. Whenever I tried to inch forward the grass would crackle causing me to whirl around to make sure that I wasn't about to roasted by dragon fire.

When I finally managed to make it just outside of the entrance I got down on my elbows and knees and poked my head from around the bunker I was shocked to say the least.

What was in the cave was a giant gold serpent with red scales jutting out of its back with two hands each with three dagger sized claws. I started to back away making my retreat, but just then its head snapped in my direction. Its fiery white eyes burned in my direction as its serpentine tongue slithers in and out of its mouth with two large horns where a human's eyebrows would be.

I stopped dead in my tracks, hoping that it didn't actually notice me. To keep comfortable my hand reached for the hilt of my falcata. Finally it must have gotten bored of looking for me and grabbed the top of the bunker and pulled itself up.

I caught my breath, with my sword hand firmly grasping the hilt of my falcata. I hoped my friends were already working out a plan, trying to figure out how to beat such a monstrosity. Then it looked over to where I had left my friends and roared.

It wasn't as I expected it to be. I thought that dragon roars would be more how people deciphered dinosaur roars to be, loud with a lower pitch. This dragon let out more of a screech than a roar but it made it none the less intimidating. That's when it pulled itself down off of the

bunker causing it to send bits of dirt and grass flying everywhere.

I really hoped that no tourists were witnessing this, however the mist would probably cover it up as some sort of battle reenactment or something, but then I had bigger things to worry about.

Most prominent was how to stop the dragon from roasting and then eating anyone.

That's when an arrow embedded itself in the dragon's left eye causing it let out another shriek or roar, followed by both Luke and Elissa tuning around the dragon. I had memorized the tactic that were using, however it was usually more effective with more than three people. Anger the monster into attacking one person while the majority of the forces would focus on flanking the enemy attacking from three sides. It was Hannibal Barca's famed tactic, the double envelopment. They were just missing the part where the cavalry would crash into the back of the force. That was when I had a brilliant idea.

"I should probably go help them." I thought to myself.

With the, now partly blind, dragon focusing on Elissa, who had just slashed at one of the dragon's claws, I moved in from the dragon's back. The dragon's tail whipped around catching Gisco off guard and sent him flying backwards a couple feet

The dragon spit an arc of green goo that I assumed to be deadly at Elissa, but thank the heavens she was light on her feet. She dogged out of the way stabbing any exposed part of the dragon she could to keep the dragons focus on her and away from Gisco who was groaning and trying to get to his feet.

"Hey!" I shouted purely on impulse because if I realized what would happen I doubt I would have done it.

The dragon, now probably very annoyed after having been partly blinded and stabbed at multiple times, pivoted its body to face me. This allowed Elissa to the opera unity to bring her blade down upon the dragon's flank, but her sword went about an inch into the dragon's thick hide before stopping. It seemed that that sword strike annoyed it more than anything.

Gisco had finally regained his footing and was able to draw another arrow and fired, but this arrow bounced harmlessly off of the dragon's armor like hide. Before I was given the chance to run towards the serpent it unleashed another jet of green group right where I was standing a moment ago. I realized that a monster this big would have trouble maneuvering in tight areas allowing for a decreased chance of collateral damage if all of us were to get in closer with it.

I swallowed and charged, my falcata raised. If I learned anything from watching the Hobbit it was that dragons have weak spots. I hoped that this one was no different.

The dragon's gaze was still fixed on me and watched me as a cat would a mouse at dinner time. By this time I had lost view of everyone behind the dragon's enormous body. I remember praying that my companions were still alive as I dodged another stream of green deadly goo.

"Its hide protects it from attacks!" I heard Gisco yell "try to find a chink in its armor!"

I wanted to shout back and ask what he thought I was doing but I decided to reserve my strength for bringing the dragon down.

While jumping around the serpent's body trying to stay as close to it as possible trying to find any weak points I finally noticed a part of the dragons underside that looked less armored than the rest. Just my luck it had to be right below its jaw which was about ten feet off of the ground.

"Gisco!" I yelled trying to shift his attention to this new target. A few seconds later a deafening boom sounded out. I stopped dead in my tracks. Thankfully for me the dragon also stopped moving otherwise I would have been flung back by the serpent's tail.

I looked to see where the noise had came from, and what I saw made me stare in amazement. A civil war era cannon, its muzzle still smoldering after having been fired.

The only problem was the cannon was firing blanks.

"Curse it!" Shouted Gisco. I then realized that he had ran out of arrows.

All of this commotion was getting the attention of the visitors and worse the parks staff. Most of the visitors were watching us probably seeing some sort of reenactment battle, while the staff was probably wondering why there was a reenactment out of schedule.

I continued to keep my eye on the dragon's weak point, watching to make sure that the dragon didn't turn me into a human pancake. That's when I noticed Luke making his way over to me. I must admit, the boy was sure light on his feet.

"How are you holding up"? I asked him.

"I'm fine." Was his reply. He sounded sure but he was sweating beads and his hands gripping sword were white. Luke then noticed were my gaze was focused on and immediately brightened up.

"Your friend with the bow can shoot him." Said Luke.

"He ran out of arrows," I said matter of factly, "but I have an idea, if Gisco and Elissa can keep the dragon's attention on them I could be able…"

That's as far as I got before the boy had already sprinted to the dragon's tail and hoped on.

"Luke!" I yelled, trying hard not to get the dragon's attention. But neither seemed to hear me, the dragon was still more interested in what it thought to be the more pressing issues. I watched in horror as Luke clambered his way along the dragon's back. I then realized as Elissa was recovering from blocking be dodging the dragon's attacks slower.

Luke had almost made it to the dragon's throat, but then the dragon knocked Elissa back with a swipe of its tail shaking Luke around, he was just able to grab onto one of the dragon's scales that stood out of the dragon's back.

This was the worst situation, Luke was barely hanging onto the dragon and Elissa was about to be melted by toxic green dragon acid.

However something strange happened. The Dragon reared its head back, it's throught was turning a light shade of green, and Luke was thrown off of the dragon. Still managing to clutch his sword in his right hand, the blade managed to reach far enough that it sliced the dragon's throat.

I realized that this was very bad. While Luke's fall had saved Elissa's life, now it was Luke who would be killed by the dragon's acid as the green goop fell from the gash that Luke's sword had cut. I could tell that the sword itself was being eaten away by the acid right away as soon as the blade came out of the dragon. On top of that the dragon looked surprised as it started to fall. I managed to outrun the falling dragon but I was confident that Luke wouldn't be as lucky.

As soon as it hit the ground the dragon exploded into red dust and monster goop probably mixed with the leftover acid. Then the audience broke into applause. I managed to rally all of my friends and Luke who was shaken but still alive and we made a sprint for the forest.

"Well, that was exciting." Elissa said when we were finally out of danger. "I'd liked to have been able to sleep in an actual bed once since New Carthage."

"We did on the train." Said Gisco.

"You could actually sleep! I stayed awake for hours." Yelled Elissa.

"Guys," I Yelled, "we need to continue on our way to New York.

"You're right, I'd at least like to have been able to retrieve my arrows now I have nothing but a knife and a celestial bronze sword." Gisco said pulling the ball point pen out of his pocket.

"Yes, well, does anyone know which way to go to get to New York"? I asked.

"I do" mumbled Luke, "I'm from Connecticut I ran away … Left home because of … The gods. This way" he said leading us away from the battlefield.

So, what exactly are we doing"? Asked Elissa. I forgot that she wasn't there when we were talking to Artemis.

"We're returning an item to the Greek camp." I said keeping my gaze focused on Luke as he led us through the forest.

"Artemis wanted us to go into the Greek camp? We can't we couldn't get past its borders and even if we could, that would be suicide. Why would she asked that." Elissa said.

"I don't know, "I said lowering my voice, " but she also said that someone in Virginia could help."

"You think Luke was the person she was talking about, but he's so young and inexperienced."

"You saw him slay the dragon didn't you"? I asked.

"Yeah, well that was luck. He was thrown off of the dragons back and just managed to slice the dragon in its weak spot."

"Ok, fine. We could still use some luck as us three seem to have so much." I said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

We continued walking into the night, and only stopped when we came to clearing in the forest.

"We should stop here." Said Gisco. Nobody complained, my feet felt like they were on fire and I'm sure everybody else felt the same.

"So," I said sitting down next to Luke. "What were you doing in the bunker back at the battlefield"? I asked.

He shifted uncomfortably, "I have to keep moving around a lot to keep from being by child services. I've made a bunch of safe houses but was chased out of every one, either by monsters, police, or both."

"Well, that doesn't matter now, now that you're with us you'll need a weapon.

Gisco!" I called out, " do you still have that knife we found in Orthrus's cave"?

"Yeah it's right here." He said unstrapping the celestial bronze knife from the inside of his pant leg.

"You've kept it there all this time"? I asked.

"No, just since I got another one. You giving it to the kid"? He asked, tossing me the knife inside of its sheath.

"Well, a knife is a better weapon against monsters than his hands I recon." I responded almost dropping the knife.

"I don't know if I could use it." Came Luke's voice. " I usually use something with a bit more force and range. Can I see that sword you were using"?

"Um," I said unsure of what to do. Normally I wouldn't mind showing him my falcata, but the way he was looking at it made me a little nervous, so decided that I would show it still sheathed to limit the epicenes that I would be showing.

"That's a different kind of sword," he said observing the blade, "why is it bent what happened to it."

"Nothing" I chuckled, "it's useful if you're in close combat but a long sword would have a better reach on it. Use the knife for now and I'll keep my eye out for a blade more your style." I strapped the sheath back on my belt.

Latter we then decided that I would be first on watch. As all of the others laid down, I sat up looking at the stars. They were more intense than what I was accustomed to back in New Carthage, with the industry and mercantile districts sending smoke and light into the sky.

Or, at least was, sending it. I clenched my fists, for the first time in awhile I started thinking about the mercenaries. They were the ones that sent us away, they were the ones that had…

That's when my thoughts drifted to the Romans.

They were the ones, they were the ones that had destroyed Carthage, they were the ones that burned our city salted our fields and sold my people into slavery.

And the Greeks? They were no better they just sat back and watched. Even when Rome had captured Greece Rome had always treated Greece like a worthy rival. Did the Romans burn everything that the Greeks ever wrote? No. Every single empire, republic, kingdom, or collection of city states hated us. We were nothing more than a bunch of cities that were in the way of a rising superpower.

I must have had been thinking about that for longer than I noticed because I remember Gisco tapping me on the shoulder and telling me to get some rest.

I nodded to him and layed down the last conscious thought going through my head was me swearing that I would never forgive Rome for what it had taken from me.

My history.


	11. Chapter 11

**I own nothing.**

My dreams did not do anything to comfort me. I was standing in front of a beaten army it took a while for me to realize that they were old Carthaginian soldiers, standing in front of me were countless Roman legions and a burning city. I had given my sword over to the Roman officer who laid it down on the ground in front of him.

All of the African hoplites followed suit laying down their spears and shields and were then promptly rounded up and taken away by two legions, leading them to the port of the city which would have been unrecognizable if it weren't for the Roman triremes.

It was then that one of the officers came forward to escort me down to their ships. I reluctantly turned around walking along with my captors through nothing but rubble and some burnt shells of buildings. When we arrived at the port I turned around to get one last view of my city before I would be dragged away to Italy.

I saw the city ablaze, roman legions were still going around the city killing the resisters and enslaving the rest, all while continuing to burn the already destroyed city. What caught my eyes were three figures at the top of the once glorious looking Temple to the gods. One of which was female leading to two smaller figures, her children most likely to the edge.

I wanted to shout at her what was she doing? But my voice would never travel that far. She then looked in my direction and turned around. She took one more step and plunged herself into the fire. I looked away; I couldn't stand to see what would happen next. But I knew what would happen, the children would follow her.

Then the scene shifted, this time I was seated inside a large auditorium filled with people in white togas shouting at each other. I could feel the tension inside, I was almost positive that I was sitting inside of the Roman senate.

"Hannibal ad portas."Yelled one of the senators. That shushed the other senators up.

"This is no longer about honor; we are fighting for the very survival of Rome!" He continued. "We must raise another army; I also suggest lowering the minimal requirements to fight. All men above the age of eighteen should be pressed into military service to protect our city! Also we must stop sending army after army to be destroyed by that monster; we will starve him of what he is good at! We will save our forces behind the walls, keep our Latin allies from betraying us.

Furthermore, all citizens of Rome are to enter the nearest city and stay there."

This was interrupted by another man shouting "but what of us, and are we really going to allow this African free roam of our republic! We must end him with force, the sooner the better!"

Then my dream shifted again, this time I was overlooking a bay, standing next to me was a what I could only describe as a queen and a fire. I turned to face her, sure that she would reflect beauty and youth, however all that was on her face was hatred and vengeance. I backed away not sure what I had done to anger her. The lady just out to the sea and with venom in her voice muttered out.

It was in a tongue that I had never heard before; it was ancient not Punic and definitely not English or Spanish. Nearing the end of her speech she changed languages and started speaking in Punic, a language I can understand.

"This I pray, these last words I pour out with my blood. Then O Tyrians, pursue my hatred against his whole line and the race to come, and offer it as a tribute to my ashes. Let there be no love or treaties between our peoples. Rise,some unknown avenger, from my dust, who will pursue the Trojan colonists with fire and sword, now, or in time to come, whether the strength is granted him. I pray that shore be opposed to shore, water to wave, weapon to weapon: let them fight, them and their descendants."

As she finished her speech she stepped into the burning pyre and with that the scene changed again.

This time my vision was split, but it didn't matter both of the cities in my dream were suffering the same fate. Standing on a hill overlooking two burning cities, both of them with great walls, neither of which were destroyed but the cities themselves were burning. One of the cities I assumed to be Rome, as the coliseum was standing in it was being sacked by barbarian warriors while the other city I somehow had a gut feeling that was Troy.

Then standing next to me appeared a Roman commander. Then the Image of Troy faded until the only city I saw was Rome and the commander took on a purple hue. He then turned to face me and then back to the burning city sadly commented.

"A day will come when sacred Troy shall perish, and Priam and his people shall be slain."

The Roman then evaporated leaving me witnessing the burning of Rome.

"Mago," , a booming voice seemed to be coming down from the heavens, "revenge your kind. Awaken your gods, bring me back from the abyss, you know your destiny. Let the Romans taste our hatred, and let the greedy Greeks know how it feels to be betrayed, bring destruction down on both of them."

"Mago" Gisco said shaking me awake, " we should hurry on our way, I don't want to be traveling north in the autumn."

He was right, the leaves were already changing colors, these forests were much different from the marshes and jungles of the Caribbean and Florida, for that I was grateful, but I realized this was a double edged sword. No longer would I have to worry about the heat and insects of the tropics but I would have to worry about the cold that was coming.

"Right," I said rising, dusting off the leaves and dirt that stuck on my clothes.

"You were mumbling in your sleep, anything bothering you." He said walking away to wake the others up.

"No," I said running my hand through my hair, "I mean nothing more than what should be." I lied.

He turned around, and looked me in the eye. I could tell that he knew something was up but before he could say anything Luke burst out of the forest.

"We need to get going, now." He said, looking around furiously.

"What's the matter"? Elissa said groaning finally having just been awoken.

"I was scouting ahead, you know looking for anything out of the ordinary and came across a freaky looking sign. I have no idea what it means but I do know it's freaking me out.

I shared a look with Gisco and asked, "Show us."

He led us through the forest and stopped before a tree.

"Right there." he said pointing to some carving in the tree. However as I looked closer I noticed that it had been there for a while, moss was growing over par of it but as I brushed it aside the full image came into view.

"What on earth is a Maltese Cross doing on this tree"? Asked Gisco.

"A what cross"? Asked Elissa.

"Their common in Europe," Gisco continued, "it was a sign of the Knights of Malta. The eight points on it," he said pointing out the four V shaped images all surrounding a small dot in the setter "all symbolize the aspirations that the Knight would have, to be faithful, to love justice, to be merciful…"

"What is this? A history lesson? Why is it here"? Interrupted Elissa

"Yes, well," Gisco said looking annoyed after having been cut off, "the ancient Phoenicians were the first to colonize Malta, and oh gods.

"What is it"? Elissa asked.

Gisco turned around from the tree, sure he had always been pale but now he looked like a ghost.

"Roanoke, that's what Artemis was talking about, and Captain…" Gisco said his voice lowering to an inaudible whisper.

"Gisco!" I snapped him back to reality.

"Right, sorry. "He said, "I don't know how, but we've found the lost Colony of Roanoke."

Thankfully Luke was just staring at the cross, to enhanced by it to do anything other than stare at it, otherwise I would have to had come up with some long story or tell the Greek the truth, neither of which sounded very fun.

"Roanoke"? I asked.

"Yeah, um Elissa, can you, um, watch Luke while I go looking for … Something with Mago here"? Gisco asked flinging his arm around my shoulder.

"Sure no problem, do you want us to help you look"?

"No, I'm good."

As soon as we were out of range Gisco told me about his conversations with Artemis and the Captain of the Sacred Band.

"What did he want us to look for then"? I asked.

"I don't know come on let's go."

We returned back to Elissa and Luke and headed into the ruins.

"Now what I want to know is how on earth did we manage to get to Roanoke without crossing onto the island," I asked "and isn't Roanoke in North Carolina"?

"It changes along with everything, you know like Mount Olympus, the gates to Hades, and Mount Lel."

"Gisco!" I snapped looking at Luke who was more interested in the leaves then in our conversation.

"Never doubt the power of the gods." Elissa piped up.

I thought I heard Luke laugh, but it might have been the noise of the forest.

"So what do you know about Roanoke"? Asked Gisco.

"I remember that it was the first English colony in the new world and that the colonists were thought to have left the word Croatoan carved on a tree which was a reference to an island to Roanoke's south."

"Exactly," said Gisco, "but there was a little more to it than that. John White had to return to England to resupply the colony. When he left he told the remaining colonists to carve a Maltese cross along with the name of their destination if they moved due to danger."

"You think that that historians had simply missed this part"? Elissa asked.

"It could have been more than that, the mist could have had something to do with it." I said stepping over a fallen log. "Besides if it does move only the mortals who can see through the mist would have been the men who could…" I was cut off when falling on my face tripping over a stump.

"Are you alright brother Elissa offered me her hand trying hard not to laugh.

(You didn't conceal it that well.)

"Yeah I'm fine." I said as my hand made contact with a sharp piece of metal and cut through my skin.

"Youch!"

(Yeah, whatever, you don't need to point it out.)

"What the," I said picking up the small blade that had been stuck in the stump.

"An iron dirk." I said looking at it.

"It's a highlander dirk." Said Elissa. "What is it doing here though"?

"Can I have it." Liked piped in.

"It's made out of iron, you're not going to be able to kill monsters with it." Gisco said directing his attention to the boy.

"Right, sorry, carry on."

"Here Elissa," I said handing her the dirk. "You should have it, it would be unwise for anyone to rely on it as is What Gisco pointed out that it is absolutely useless in a monster fight."

"Thanks brother." She said sheathing the dork through her sock. "What," she said looking at us, "this is how highlanders carried theirs."

"Whatever, we need to get going, we found the ruins and a dirk, now we need to return the sword." I said turning back the way we came.

"Hold on," said Gisco "if we are where Roanoke moved, maybe we could find some deity who used to be worshiped here and find a faster way to New York."

"You mean the way you summoned the horse"? Asked Elissa.

"Yes, let's try Dagon this time." I was startled when he said this, beginning priests started with the less powerful gods and would eventually work their way up through the others, taking up Dagon right away… It wasn't wise to say the least.

"Don't you think you should go with Shapash or Yarikah."

He looked at like I had gone crazy "Yarikah is the moon god, he wouldn't respond now.

"That was my whole point."

"Fine then, I could try…"

"Or you could just shut up and listen to my request." Said a voice from behind us.

I reached for my falcata as I turned around and my gaze was met by a large man with a beard the color of dirt and wearing a fez. As soon as I laid eyes on him I recognized him, he was the male deity that a statute of which was in the Tophet back at New Carthage.

"Ba'al Hammon,"I said kneeling down along with the others except Luke, I was going to nudge him but was stopped by Ba'al continuing.

"Yes, yes stand up I have no time for this. I can't help you much as I am not really hear, and my conscious self isn't awake. This is just a vision, I will be able to transport to the base of Mount Olympus, the new one not the one in Greece, but you'll have to leave the Greek behind." He said looking over to Luke.

I was about to tell him that if he didn't go I wouldn't go, but before that Luke spoke up.

"Thank you. They will go."

"Excuse us," I said grabbing Luke by the shoulder and led him away.

"What were you thinking, you'll be left behind, do you really think you can survive alone much longer"? I shouted at him.

"I'll be fine, I've been able to survive this long, and now I know that there are others I can find them instead of looking to befriend mortals. You can go with him and I'll just be on my way from here."

"Is there no convincing you otherwise"? I asked.

Luke just shook his head.

"Alright then, thanks for showing us the way," I said turning around. "Oh, if anyone asks about anything involving what you've just heard about or how you acquired that knife, make up something." I said looking back one last time. "Something realistic preferably, how about an old son of Ares gave it to you."

"Yeah, thanks I'll try to see if I can visit you when you make it to Chicago." He said turning around.

"Sorry about that," I said returning to the group, " we will be honored to…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, enough with all of the your honors and sirs and such I can't stay here much longer. All of you stand over there." he said pointing next to a tree "never mind over there," he said pointing away from the tree, "now let's see if I remember how to do this." He said as he raised his arms and dropped then with which came a defining boom and a blinding flash of light.

When I collected my thoughts and decided that it was safe to open my eyes I was still in the middle of a forest, except this time I was standing in front of what seemed a pile of rocks in the shape of a human fist.

Somewhere behind it I could hear Elissa's voice call out.

"That is the largest pile of poo I have ever seen."

"What are you talking about," I said navigating around the rock pile "that is most definitely a… oh."

"Yup, anyway we should get going, why didn't anyone think to ask where we were going". Came Gisco's voice from on the other side of the pile of poo.

"I don't know, maybe because he was a god and could kill us like we were bugs." Answered Elissa.

We continued our hike through the forest now completely discombobulated after our run in with Ba'al Hammon. I didn't like having to leave Luke behind, but he seemed to be perfectly capable of survival without us. Still it bothered me. A couple more minutes and I could definitely tell we weren't in Virginia any more, the leaves were all changing color, and it felt like it was below zero.

Celsius, not Fahrenheit, if the temperature wasn't going to kill me I figured learning imperial would.

Eventually we came out in a field, I originally thought it was just an abandoned one but taking a closer look I realized that it was a strawberry field.

"Gisco!" I called out "food."

"You're right," he said looking down, " I would like to continue going but," he said looking up. "The bad weather seems to be skirting around this field, I suppose a short break couldn't hurt."

I didn't realize how hungry I was until I started eating. I thought back to the last full meal I had which was at the restaurant in Richmond. We were so fixed on stuffing our mouths with the red berries that none of us noticed the goat men, satyrs, approaching us.

"Excuse us," said a tall satyr "who are you and what are you doing here"?

"They're spies!" A second older stouter satyr yelled.

"Spies of what"? Asked the third scrawny satyr.

"I don't know, but they're definitely spies I tell you."

"Excuse me good sirs" I said "we are but humble…"

"Spies," interrupted the older satyr "your humble spies!"

"Humble spies"? Asked the third, " I've never heard of those."

"We were just hiking in that forest over there and we came out in this beautiful meadow." Elissa blurted out.

That seemed to calm the older one down a bit. "Yes it is quite nice, isn't it"? He said admiring the field.

"Yes it is lovely, but we were wondering where the nearest bus station is, we are quite hungry and trying to get downtown would take some time walking." I said trying to convince the satyrs we were ordinary mortals before I handed then the "g".

"Of course," said the tall satyr "just down the main road that way." He said pointing across the field.

However then the scrawny satyr leaned in and whispered something to him. "Right there's a giant pond that way you'll have to go around it."

"Right," I said pretending that I did see a pond.

"Oh," Gisco said digging bringing the bronze sword from behind his back "I found this in the meadow, I don't suppose it belongs to you does it."

"Oh yes," the old satyr's eyes grew wide "that is Indeed mine, you can never be too careful with monst… I mean um mobsters." He said grabbing the pen.

"Anyway nice meeting you." Said the tall one and with that they all ran back from where they've came.

"Well at least now we know where we are." Said Elissa.

"Now all we need to do is find a way to get to Chicago, how much money do you have left.

"Not enough for any mode of transportation," I said glumly.

"Let's just get to the bus stop, wait can we afford that"? Asked Elissa.

" I ment we don't have enough money to get us to Chicago. We have enough money for that." I said.

A long hike around the pond and an even longer bus ride later we found ourselves in Manhattan. The skyscrapers and factories dwarfed the ones back at New Carthage. As soon as it was visible though the skyscraper that drawer my attention to it was The Empire State Building.

"There she be," said Gisco in an awed voice, "Mount Olympus."

We all stopped on a bridge, which in hindsight wasn't the best idea stopping in the middle of a bridge with hundreds of people trying to get across.

"Hey watch it buddy."

"Sorry sir." I said.

"If there's one thing I can't stand its people getting in the way I'll tell you, you, who are you"? The man's bearded face asked coming into view.

He looked like a normal New Yorker. Sure I mean his Italian suite was all greasy like he just finished oiling his car while on the way to a church service.

His brown eyes narrowed as he looked at all three of us in turn. I felt a little uncomfortable it was like he was trying to figure out what I would be able to do for him. If that wasn't enough to shake my nerves he then grabbed me and Elissa by the shoulders.

"Come on," he said to Gisco who had started fumbling with his bow, "you need to come with me."

I locked eyes with Elissa and she looked like she was thinking the exact same thing as me. Try to avoid causing a commotion this far in enemy territory even if it meant being tossed around by middle aged businessman.

"In here." he said leading us inside an apartment. Down there he said letting go of us and pointing down an old stairwell.

When I stepped off of the last step what I saw shocked me. It looked I had just stepped inside of what you would get if you crossed a gypsy tent with an Amish furniture studio.

"I'm sorry for the mess, my brother is usually the one who keeps track of all of this junk." The bearded man said taking a huge heap of crystals of a workbench and laid them in a bucket.

"I wasn't expecting company, and definitely not Carthaginian."

"Wait you know who we are"? Elissa asked hesitantly.

"Of course I do, I would also guess that you've heard of me also."

"No I definitely have never met a New York business slash carpenter before." I said.

He sighed, sitting down on a stool.

"This is how it always is. You're not important enough for anyone to know about you so you're completely harmless, it's not like you could do anything destructive. You're the God of craftsmanship. It is so unfair. If it weren't for me the roman Navy wouldn't exist.

"Wait, your Vulcan"? Asked Elissa "I thought you were Carthaginian."

"I am. I'm Kothar"

Then why are you responsible for the Roman navy"?

"A minor mishap involving me increasing productivity."

"I've heard of that," I blurted out "the Romans had no idea how to build affective ships but they just so happened to find a Carthaginian ship stranded and took it apart."

I really should have known not to have made an immortal being angry. His expression turned from one of sadness to one of pure rage. He clenched his fists and rose opening his left hand and a reach flew into it.

"Your lucky Mango," I didn't really want to correct him, especially not with a wrench in his hand. "I only brought you down here to help you avoid the Greeks. There swarming here, I thought I could manage a quiet existence here but it doesn't seem to be working. Anyway I also need your help with something. I will provide you with a way forward but I am going to need you three to do something for me. You see, most of the gods locked away because the Romans decided that they were too dangerous, they did leave a couple of the unimportant ones alone such as me. What I want you to do is to find a way to summon my brother back.

We looked at each other a little uncomfortable, we wanted to help but how does one go around freeing deities.

As if he was sensing our questions he continued, tapping his screwdriver against his knee. "We gods can't free our partners we need mortal flesh to do that." He brought a hunk of metal to one of his workbenches, and started to hammer, screw and sand it. "I remember that bow." He said still paying all of his attention to his work "I wanted to give it to a mortal however, Lady Anath got upset that it wasn't given to her as she was the goddess of war."

"I never got that," Elissa muttered.

"Yes, well she is quite different from the Olympian gods. All done he said tossing Gisco a fancy quiver. "This quiver, when you do free Khasis show him it and he will know what to do.

When I saw the quiver I caught my breath. The quiver was made out of wood with streets of iron, gold and silver running diagonally around it.

"I must admit, I have no idea how Khasis made the bow work, but he is the magician of the gods, still using silver and gold to be the arm of the bow," he said looking back into the back of his workshop. "I have also made for you a way to get to Chicago. There is a mechanical boat that will appear for you outside in the Hudson River, you can take it through the Erie Canal and into the Great Lakes. You'll be in Chicago in no time. When you get to Chicago, to free my brother you should probably start your search in the Field Museum or the Museum of Science and Industry.

"Why there"?

"The Carthaginian gods that are trapped are locked from fully entering this world by spells placed by their corresponding Olympian deity, for example Hades keeps an eye on Melqart and Mot, Poseidon watches over Yam, and Ba'al Hadad is entrusted to Zeus. I expect they keep the spells in places that they are accustomed to seeing, Hephaestus is in charge of guarding my brother and he is a fan of smithing and industry. What better place then there."

"Hold on, if we free him wouldn't all of the gods want to be freed? And then that would…" Gisco was cut off.

"Oh I'm sure no one will hear about you three." Kothar said winking at him "anyway the Greeks are gone, you should find the boat over there." he said pointing to an empty corner.

"Go on." He encouraged us when he noticed our blank stares.

"Right." All three of us headed over to the corner.

"I love this." Kothar said moving over to a lever, I had just enough time to yell "wait!" Before we tumbled through the floorboards and down a slide onto a waiting boat on the Hudson.

"Remind me never to take the Kothar express again." Mumbled Gisco who was sprawled out with his head resting against a bag of what looked like flour.

Below deck was outfitted with nothing more than three sleeping bags. The boat itself looked like your average tourist attraction. Its cabin was painted red and the lower half of the boat was green. Like a giant Christmas boat. What really grabbed my attention now thought was that the name on one of the life preservers said Delphi II.

"This is a Greek boat"? Elissa said coming down into the ship's cabin.

"I'm guessing he named it the Delphi II to divert attention away from it, I mean what sounds more shipshape the second Delphi or the first Yam"?

"I know you're talking about the god but I could really go for the fruit." I said.

"And so could I."

"It's getting dark, we can work about food when we wake up tomorrow." Said Gisco returning back above the boat.

"I guess it is getting late we should hit the sack."

Gisco returned down with three sacks of flour "makeshift pillows." He said handing each of us one. "I'm just glad that Kothar has some sort of autopilot on this thing, we will be in Chicago sooner than I anticipated."

With that we all fell asleep, not even the lights of New York kept us awake.

"Everyone up, we've stopped." Gisco's voice woke me from my deep slumber. We've made it to Troy.

"What," I asked sitting straight up "Troy? Oh, New York."

"Let's get breakfast."

"How exactly do we get off of this boat and on the shore"? Asked Elissa.

"I don't know it's a god's tool, and it can't be that deep let's just hop off."

That was the worst idea Gisco had ever came up with.

"Great, were soaking. Now what." Elissa asked, her hair was full of discussing river gunk, if almost looked like one of those Caramel Apple suckers except the colonies were inside out. I suppose I probably didn't look any better though. The only one who looked completely fine was Gisco, I mean except for the being soaked part. I guess his short hair helped that.

"How are we going to get anything when we look like we just crawled out of a sawyer." Asked Elissa.

"I guess you're right," I said "we could use some new clothes

"There's a gift shop across the street," Gisco said "I hate looking like a giant advertisement but in this case I think I can afford that." He said crossing the street and entered the store. Looking back on it the name should have warned us not to go into it, but I wasn't thinking like that then. When we left we would realize that the store was called Hector's Wooden Horses N More.


	12. Chapter 12

**I own nothing.**

 **Sorry for the long wait... If anyone actually cares.**

Our first indicator that something was amiss should have been the person who greeted us, she was far too happy.

The inside of the store was what anyone would expect a tourist shop to look like, a postcard rack in the front a bunch of shelves full of useless knick knacks, including stuffed pandas and mules, snow globes, and more, after finally maneuvering to the back of the store we found what we were looking for, fresh clothes.

"Hello welcome to Horses N More is there anything I can help you with." Came a voice from behind us. She was wearing a tie dye shirt with all of the colors swirling around made my head hurt so I tried to avoid looking at it.

"Oh my, you definitely came to the right place." she said her blue eyes opened in shock at seeing our appearance.

"Sorry about your carpet." Elissa said sheepishly.

"Oh it's fine," the lady said sighing and running a hand through her long blond hair "you're not as bad as most of the tourists that come here, just let me know if you need anything the changing rooms are just through that door." She said turning around going back to her counter.

I went first; trying not to look too much like a tourist I grabbed a pair of khakis and a green shirt that said "I love Troy." The changing room wasn't anything spectacular; however the artwork was very different from your average art you would find in a changing room. I recognized a couple, like a copy of the _Birth of Venus_ and other classical art.

I finished inside and let Elissa in. I dug in my pants and came out with the money to pay for the clothes.

"Be careful," Gisco said to me looking at one of the gift shops postcards, "her name tag says _Cassandra."_

I nervously looked over at the blond store worker, she did look like the women in the myth but how could she still be alive? I decided not to think about it and just went up to pay her. I gave her two twenties and was surprised when she handed one back.

"I can't let the three of you walk around with almost destroyed clothes just the one twenty for all three, oh and be sure to tell everyone about our discounts." She said winking at me.

I turned around and started head over back to Gisco who had managed to find an ice cream cooler.

"I would purchase this whole lot if we didn't need to save up our money." He said still staring into the cooler.

"Gisco, you can go now." Elissa said making her way over to us, she had selected jeans and a windbreaker, both with the all iconic _I Heart NY._

"Tourist." I mumbled.

"Relax we are all going to look like tourists." She said "Ooh, ice cream."

"I was hoping to actually get something from a restaurant, you know, actual food." I said.

But my voice was carried over to deaf ears, she started to rummage through the cooler pulling out Popsicles, Dreamsicles and more before she finally settled on a Ben and jerry's container of strawberry.

"Jeez," Gisco said returning from the changing room. "If you're going to buy Ben and jerry's at least get something unique."

"I'm a purist." She said.

"Well if you're a purist why didn't you at least get something vanilla"?

"I like strawberry."

"We should probably get going now, get some lunch and head on our way." Gisco said. "Thank you for everything he said to the cashier.

"Any time." She replied.

After exiting the store I looked around where we were. "That's strange," Elissa said looking straight out "when did it start to snow."

Sure enough the temperature had dropped and the rain that should be falling in the autumn had been replaced with snow. It wasn't a huge storm of any kind but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss.

"Let's find us some food." Gisco said to no one in particular.

It took us less than ten minutes to find someplace to eat. I would have preferred a sit down restaurant with food that the cooks cook in the back kitchen, but what I got was a shish kebab stand. The food was wonderful, roasted meat, Gisco and I ordered lamb meat while Elissa ordered chicken.

"It's been a while since I've had lamb." Said Gisco grabbing his stick and the receipt.

"Our last meal before the quest," I said remembering that night.

"October seventh"?

I turned around and saw Gisco staring at the receipt.

"October seventh." Elissa asked her mouth full of chicken.

"We've spent eight days here"? Gisco asked staring at the slip of paper before he crumpled up and shoved it into his pocket.

"We should have known, a shop named after a famous Trojan and a wooden horse." I said.

"We should hurry though, the canal stops in the winter, I don't want to be stuck in the canal." Gisco said.

When we made it back to where the boat was parked we had another dilemma to deal with.

"How are we going to get back on it"? Asked Elissa.

"Were we smart enough to buy rope at the store"? Gisco asked.

We all shook our heads, I was about to use the last of our money to go back into a store and buy rope but Gisco convinced me that that would take longer than I would think. After a couple more minutes I found a coil of rope lying around a tree. When I picked it up I noticed a Maltese cross carved into the tree.

I shook my head, thinking it was too much of a coincidence, I gave the rope to Gisco and he ended up tying the rope to one of his arrows, and lashed the other end around the tree.

"Let's hope this works." he said nothing the arrow on his bow.

He fired his arrow and it embedded itself into the front of the boat. All three of us pulled the boat closer to the shore he stopped halfway saying he didn't want to risk having the boat scrape against anything.

"The last thing we need is another Titanic." Gisco said leaping onto the boat.

We finally all managed to get back on the boat Gisco turned the motor back on, and the automatic ship started up again. The short journey to the canal was uneventful. A short while later that day, around three, we came to the first lock. At first I wasn't sure what to do the doors weren't opening, until an angry looking Naiad surfaced next to our boat.

"More demigods huh, do you have a permit"? She asked crossing her arms glaring at us.

We were all at a loss for words; we had hoped that we could have just went straight to Chicago from New York. Obviously that wasn't going to happen now unless we could come up with fourth more bucks.

"I don't suppose any of you are hiding any cash." I asked the other two.

"If you don't have a permit this is as far as I can let you go, I don't sea why you would even want to go further, it's all manmade and filthy. I don't know what I did to deserve this. Spend my days wasting away, and serving all demigods that want to travel through here…"

She kept on yapping on and on about being trapped, I almost decided to give up and somehow turn around and travel the rest of the way on foot but then out of nowhere appeared the man from the Tophet.

"Here, let this craft through." The man said handing the Naiad some papers. The Naiad then swam off and the docks opened letting us through.

"When, and how did you get here"?Gisco and I asked.

"You know him"? Elissa looked at us surprised, her hand on the hilt of her hunting knife.

"Oh, let's all be friendly," the man said looking sadly at Elissa "don't go for your sword, I gave your friend and brother their quest. I also saved all three of you from dying by Litanu or the Leviathan's hands, so to speak."

"You saved us? How"? Asked Gisco.

"That's not important, what is important is you arriving in Chicago soon. I don't usually go around helping people with their every need but I was in the area and I too have business in Chicago."

"What type of business"? I asked.

"That's also not important, I also left you with a bag of supplies, it should hold you over until you reach your destination."

"You make it sound like you're not coming with us."

"I'm not," he said turning away from us, "I need to stop by Syracuse; I have an old friend I need to talk with. I'll be off you boat by tomorrow morning."

The man went below decks with Gisco following shortly saying they were retiring for the night which left me alone with Elissa.

"Do you think our parents are safe?"

The question hit me hard. I had completely forgotten about everyone who was left behind in Cuba. I was about to respond with almost no hope in my answer but I stopped myself thinking about why the mercenaries revolted in the first place.

"I don't know, the only blood that they would be after would probably just be the officers in charge of them and the members of the senate. Our parents being of working class posed no threat to them, and even if they had gone after more than them they wouldn't have had massacred everyone, they know fighting but that's it. If they plan to survive in the long run they would need to keep the workers.

Elissa turned around, I thought I should leave her alone for a while to process all of it, but she then called back to me.

"Thanks bro." She quickly returned back to staring at the passing scenery as we made our way through the Erie Canal.

I then returned down below with Gisco and the stranger and was out in seconds.

I have to say, even with all of the ways my creative sister tries tries to wake me, have it be taking my tent down before I was awake, seeing how loud she could play the violin before I started to strangle her and overall just being a pain, nothing was able to compare with Gisco's idea of throwing a breakfast bar at me.

"Ow, what was that for"? I asked angrily.

His response was priceless.

"I wanted to figure out how many times I would have to through this cereal at you for you to wake up."

I sat up on my cot rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I responded annoyed "you got your answer"?

"Oh yes it was much more than your sister thought, she bet that it would only take seven, I knew that was far too little for your sleep."

"Of course Elissa was in on it." I mumbled to myself. "Where is she anyway"? I asked grabbing one of the bars that was littering my space.

"There are only two places on this boat if she isn't on one I wonder where she could be." Responded Gisco. Our guest has already left us," Gisco said heading back up to the top deck somewhere near Syracuse, he said that we would find help in Lake Huron,"

Quickly I followed him up to the top. I was greeted by more scenery of trees and some rocks, I'm sorry for you biological types but I couldn't tell you the names of the clouds that were flying overhead much less some rocks and sticks.

(Huh)

Gisco tells me to inform you that they were cumulus, whatever the heck that means.

The journey continued to be long and boring a couple times I saw unhappy looking Naiads scowling at our boat as if it was a giant hawk that had just snatched away a poor defenses bunny.

"Ignore them," came Elissa's voice from behind me "they don't like canals that much, to unnatural."

I couldn't blame them, fresh water spirits living in a "filthy human made" canal, as the first Naiad had put it, didn't seem that far off.

Farther along yet we ran into a Ceasg. "Half women half salmon," Gisco wondered aloud. "I wonder what they taste like."

"That is sickening." I responded.

"Probably like chicken," Elissa booted in.

"You're both crazy." I decided.

A while later, after a nutritious lunch of _more_ breakfast bars, Elissa headed back down sleep.

"So, the Sophet, what do you think"? Gisco asked me still leaning over the edge.

"I don't know, if the assassin was roman even if he was rogue he would have let the others know about us, I'm starting to think he might have been Greek."

"I guess," he muttered, "that makes sense, especially considering who it was."

"What was that"? I asked not sure of what he meant.

"Nothing," he quickly stood up, pushing himself away from the railing. "I think your sister had it right, there's nothing to do now but wait." Gisco said making his way downstairs.

I stayed up above for a few more minutes and watched the opening and closing of another lock. I thought back to Gisco's question. I had never actually thought to hard about it, everyone had been told that it was a roman demigod, but there were always those who believed in something else.

I had originally thought Gisco was to grounded to look into any crazy conspiracy theories, but now, I wasn't so sure.

These happy thought said along with the hum of the magical engine was enough to overcome my mind and I slipped into unconsciousness.

The dream I had then was more along the lines off a flashback, not one of those that you've read Hazel having. This was less remembering the past as it was analyzing the day.

It was March third, and I was in the arena fencing with a practice dummy. I had just been tasked with finding a job by my father but I couldn't find any place that was hiring, it could have been that, or it could have been the fact that I spent all of my time either in the arena fencing, the blacksmith shop or my room sleeping or reading.

I swung my practice sword at the dummy resulting in a satisfying "crunch" as I pulled my sword out of the dummy's side.

"Impressive as always." Came a deep voice from behind me.

I turned around astonished to see senator Dufort leaning against the door wearing a black suit and tie.

"How long have you been standing here"? I asked.

"Long enough." Was his answer. I was headed to the senate and I noticed that the arena was in use, I must say curiosity got the best of me and took a little detour to see who. Anyway," he said checking his watch, "Sophet Johnson hates it when we don't start on time so I must bid you adieu."

With that he left me standing with a straw leaking practice dummy, who was smiling way too much for his job description.

I could only put off my responsibility for so long I decided and I set out to find work.

Sort of.

The first place I went to was the local market to buy lunch.

However there I did ask if there were any job openings. The guy who sold me my sandwich just chuckled and replied "not for you."

I took that as a _no_ and moved on.

I stopped at the fish market but soon left due to the overwhelming smell of fish guts. After visiting the tanner and I headed back to the trainee barracks. when I returned to the main road though I was met by the entire mounted sacred band regiment. I quickly stood aside to let them pass. I was tempted to ask what was going on but the soldiers expressions made me think twice about it.

When the last of them had past me, heading up towards the Tophet, I continued on my way. However when I entered the military section of the city two guards demanded that I show identification.

This wasn't new to me you usually are supposed to show you're a decorative shekel, your identification in the military, generals would receive golden ones officer's silver and enlisted men had bronze they would also show your status on them, mine had a single dagger on it to represent my trainee status, but only the old disciplined generals and the young who had dreams of grander would actually ask to see yours.

This was no problem for me, I dug my bronze shekel out of my jeans pocket and showed the guards nod walked through but I knew the guards, they were both seven years my senior and had no desire to climb any higher on the latter.

As I made my way to my room I noticed everything was eerily quiet, and all of the people I saw looked unnerved and had their hands near their waist as if they were reaching for weapons that weren't there. As trainees we weren't allowed to carry around weapons outside of the sword arena or the training field.

When I finally arrived at the barracks two guards were standing at the entrance and checking people's identification again. I dug my trainee shekel out of my pocket and showed them and then asked,

"Why is the security notched up now"?

The guard on the left answered, "The Sophet has been killed." I was about to ask what happens but he then gestured for the next person in line and I walked inside feeling even more confused than when I had arrived.

I was woken the next morning by my ever so present sister.

"Get up," she said throwing a breakfast bar at my face.

"You had some left over from yesterday"? I asked annoyed of the rough treatment my face had been receiving the past day.

"You just mist the last of the canal," Gisco said emerging from below the deck, "we're in the Great Lakes from here on out."

"This little boat sure goes faster than I expected," I said unwrapping the breakfast bar my sister had thrown at me.

"That's probably because it was given to us by a god." Responded Gisco.

"Next time one of you wakes me up try to have a reason." I said heading below deck.

"All right, but with Gisco hear he's probably going to wake you up to inform you of time every hour." Elisa called after me.

"Don't you dare." I turned halfway down the stairs.

"Every half hour, got it." Gisco said smirking.

I raised my hand up and opened my mouth to respond but quickly decided to not bother with it.


	13. Chapter 13

**I own nothing.**

"So, does anyone actually know where we are"? Asked Gisco staring out into the lake.

We left the structured area of the canal and now we were floating somewhere in the Great Lakes. I couldn't tell you which one but I did know that we weren't in Lake Superior. So being my natural sarcastic self I replied to Gisco.

"In the water."

"Not yet at least." Gisco mumbled turning back away from me.

It had been at least two days since we had ran out of breakfast bars and started to eat the jerky that the bearded man had packed us.

Some of you may be wondering "Why haven't we eaten that first? Surely that would have tasted better."

I could go into a long rant about how any type of processed meat is bad for you, how all the additional stuff they put into it can dramatically decrease your lifespan, or I can tell the truth and say that this brand just plain sulked. If you don't believe me that it tasted awful listen to what Elissa said emerging from below deck

"This tastes awful."

I rest my case.

After that enlightening tidbit the three of us sat down on the deck waiting for a clue as to where we were.

"Sitting around like this is getting us nowhere." Gisco said obviously peeved. "I swear," he said standing grabbing the hilt of his hunting knife "those mercenary scum are going to pay for my inconvenience."

He continued to utter several Punic curses, which I won't tell, before he threw his knife at the floor, the blade embedding into the deck, and went back down below deck.

Elissa and I looked at each other nervously; Gisco had always been the calm and collected one of us, if something got under _his_ skin of all people…

I shook my head refusing to think about it.

"That was certainly unexpected." Elissa said rising. She walked over to where Gisco had thrown his knife and yanked it out of the deck.

"Brother, I forgot to mention but when we first were apprehended by the hunters one of them, Zoë I think, wanted to see if we were demigods by nicking us with Celestial Bronze, it didn't affect me but it was able to draw blood from Gisco"

"Yes, "I responded, "I remember Gisco telling me something like that; however I believe I have an answer to that." I responded thinking back to the woman on the train.

"Apparently there are some Punic demigods,"

"What, but then…" Elissa interrupted.

I held my hand up to silence her, "there not the same though, Greek demigods are born directly from a god and a mortal, while when it happens with Punic gods a mortal would host a Deity because the physical being of the Deity is trapped gods know where.

"So his father was…"

"Mother actually, sorry go on."

"So his _Mother_ was once possessed by a goddess"?

"I, guess." my voice said rising.

Then I found myself thinking back to when the boy, Luke, and his sword, the one that had melted in the dragons acid, and also the one that _I_ had definitely felt on my neck. I was about to bring this up but I quickly bit my tongue, I didn't want to remind Elissa of our own parents so I decided to excuse myself and head down below deck to tell Gisco, but when I got down I found him fast asleep and I decided to follow suit.

Now, having had breakfast bars thrown at my face you would think that that would have been the strangest wake up call, but I've always had a soft spot for the ole sword at you throat thing.

"Now what are ye doin here lad"?

I hastily opened my eyes and saw a man with the body of giant wearing a torn kilt that almost looked like it had been through a paper shredder, and wielding a massive claymore aimed right under my chin.

"I'll ask again case you didn't hear me the first time, who are ye and what are ye doing hear"?

I almost didn't understand him, he had one the strongest Scottish accents I had ever heard, which considering I was raised in Cuba that wasn't saying much.

"Right," I said looking up at the giant, his long red hair almost reached past his beard making it hard to decipher which was which. "Um, can I at least stand"?

The giant looked at me a little annoyed as if he was thinking about how much extra energy he would have to exert helping me up if he was going to let my body fall back to the ground, minus the head, he eventually extended his left hand and almost pulled my arm out of my socket when he was helping me up.

"Thanks." I said massaging my shoulders and looking around for any signs of Gisco or Elissa.

As if sensing my anxiety the giant said "Your friends are safe, for now at least" or, at least, that's what I think he said. "Now tell me who are you and what are ye doing here"?

I sensed that there was little use in trying to play a sob story so I just laid the facts in front of him and waited for him to respond.

"Hunters of Artemis," the giant said clenching his fist around the hilt of his sword which was now stored safely away in its sheath on his kilt,

"How we all _hate_ their kind, they act all high and mighty like they're the only ones who need earth, and that everyone who isn't a hunter is contributing to its destruction. Tell me wee lad," he said leading me above deck and into some sort of camp. "How many females can ye count excluding your own sister"?

I looked around the makeshift village, almost all of them were male but the age range was varied, most of them were in their mid twenties but there were some teenagers and some old men walking around.

The giant man led me into the village "We may all have different heritages, heck most of us aren't even Scottish, but we all have had are families ruined by the Hunters of Artemis, when we realize that we can see through the mist you would think that would improve relations, but no, as soon as they realize that the world isn't what it seems and that there is a group of immortal girls their own age they abandon their own family thinking only about their own selfish preservation."

"David how was yer hunt." the giant said turning to a smaller younger man who almost looked like a young version of Patrick Stewart's Macbeth."

"Good sir, we caught two elk, should be enough."

"Sorry about that." the giant said as we continued our way to wherever he was taking me

"So, where are you taking me, are we to be trapped here because of our association with the hunters"?

The giant studied me for a while and then broke into a grin.

"Nah, we've been informed of your arrival, an old friend called a we bit back. Said his name was Frederick though I didn't buy that for a second. Anyway this be the meal lodge. You'll find yer friends in there as well as an additional member to yer party." The giant said ushering me inside of a large hut.

"I'll be on me way, good luck on yer journey."

I stopped in my tracks turning around in the doorway, "What you're not coming in."

"I've already eaten."

"Well, can I at least have name." I asked.

"I suppose so, I'm Duncan, chief here." he said before leaving my from sight.

I now feel kind of bad because I would never be able to thank him for anything.

"Brother, they didn't kill you."

"Nice to see you to Elissa." I said to my sister who was sitting at a round table next to Gisco and a female whom I never encountered before. She was wearing a long green trench coat and leather boats almost making her look like that one character in the Hobbit movie that wasn't even in any of the books, you know, I think Tauriel was her name.

The fact that she had a bow slung on her back helped the image. The only difference was that she had black hair.

She then stood up reaching her hand out looked at me with a rather large smile. "Bethóc Wallace, daughter of the village chieftain, at your service.

"She seems knowledgeable of these parts, she should be a good navigator." Gisco said looking up from his bacon."

Bethóc seemed to shy away from the attention and quickly added "Actually, this will be the first time I leave the village besides the occasional hunting trip to the mainland, father suggested that this would be a good way to get to know the outside world a little better."

"Anyway we're glad to have you aboard" I said taking a seat opposite of her pulling a plate of bacon and a type of sausage towards me.

After breakfast and Bethóc returned from saying her farewells we returned to the Delphi which was pulled ashore near a couple of Celtic looking galleys.

She must have caught me staring because Bethóc responded, "For our hunting trips I mentioned earlier."

I nodded as we boarded. Luckily for us Bethóc had almost no accent, unlike her father.

"Tell me something," Gisco asked jumping onto the boat, "I've never understood the whole Celtic thing."

"The founders of the first villagers were all mortals who could see through the mist, they thought they were the only ones so they banded together and found secluded areas that they thought they would be safe in." Bethóc said as we shoved off from the shore.

"At first all of the monsters that followed us were Celtic spirits, so we thought nothing of any actual gods, just monsters and spirits. The trouble started when we realized that we weren't alone. The first other descendants of the gods we met were a couple of Norsemen, they ran into our camp, we shared our fire and they left, and we felt nothing of it. Then came the hunters. That's when everything went down the toilet. They told us about the world and asked the females to join them. Of course being promised immortality swayed a lot of their minds. The remaining bunch of males and females had different opinions of them; some thought they were just a bunch of foolish girls while others admitted that it did sound good. That's when the one giant tribe split, of course there were others but our one major tribe split thanks to fighting amongst ourselves.

"Or at least that's what everyone says happened." Bethóc replied as the mechanical boat resumed its course to Chicago.

Elissa then took Bethóc down to show her all of the open spots on the floor, why on earth she did that I don't know, slinging her backpack one Elissa led the way.

"Mago, the chief, Duncan I think left us with improved supplies from the weird bearded man."

Thinking back on it calling him "the bearded man" for so long would have irritated me now.

"That's good I suppose." I said as Gisco started digging through a bag that had been placed on our boat by the chief.

"Our weapons," he said throwing me my falcata "My bow and a new hunting knife." He said drawing his bow from the sack and a dagger that looked more ornamental than anything.

After handing back the weapons that had been compensated from us we had a small lunch of deer meat, some kind of berry jam, and biscuits courtesy of the same people who took our weapons.

"This is... different." I could tell Gisco was having trouble keeping it down, Elissa and Bethóc were happily tearing into it, me on the other hand, it was food I guess.

Bethóc wiped her mouth on her sleeve, "It shouldn't be much longer until we reach Lake Michigan. I can keep watch go down bellow and get some rest I'll awake you when we get there."

"I was just about to think the same." Gisco said already heading down the stairs.

"Come on Mago, let's go." Elissa said rising.

"Nah, I think I'll stay up here." I said looking out.

"OK, well no funny business you two."

She was silenced by a piece of the meat I hadn't eaten.

I was about to turn to ask Bethóc something but forgot when I saw a Phoenix flying overhead.

"They rise from the ashes of a slain one, their beautiful." Bethóc said in an awed tone.

"As long as they don't set fire to our boat I guess." I responded.

"You're full of sunshine."

"You're just observing that now."

"I have known you for what five hours at most."

"Yes, your two hours late, most people would have come to the same conclusion in just three."

It took us a couple more hours to reach Lake Michigan. The remaining time was filled with Bethóc asking questions about New Carthage and in general being rather obnoxious but anything was better than what was going on below decks.

An hour after my delightful conversation of Phoenix and my sunshines I went below decks to rest for a while, and I found Elissa polishing her hunting Knife and dirk furiously, and Gisco mumbling incoherently drawing symbols in the deck with his new Knife.

I returned above deck shortly after.

I was almost worried when it came time to get them to come up for dinner now that we had entered Lake Michigan.

Luckily for me Bethóc volunteered to go down.

During dinner we went into detail about our journey so far, Bethóc seemed understanding enough at least until the part that we parted from Luke. she didn't voice it but I noticed her disappointed look.

"What do you plan on doing when you arrive in Chicago." She asked siting up putting down a biscuit.

"First trying to find how to free Khasis and have him finish my bow." Gisco said studying his bow.

"I was actually thinking that we should find the safe haven before we do anything maybe replenish our supplies and get more help." I said.

"That seems like a safer idea." Bethóc agreed.

"But I do think it would be wise to try to find how to free all of the deities, not just one." I added.

I couldn't tell but I thought saw Gisco look at me strangely. He opened his mouth, maybe to protest, but was interrupted by Elissa.

"Mago is right; we need to help all of them."

"I suppose I can stay around to help then." Bethóc said pulling out a highland dirk from inside of her boot.

After dinner I went below deck to catch up on my sleep along with Elissa and Bethócl. Gisco had volunteered to remain above deck to keep watch to avoid any more situations like today's.

"Tell me more about New Carthage I'd like to hear more about it." Bethóc asked.

"Sure." Elissa jumped up at the mention of our old home, "We based it after the original Carthage so of course at the center was our Tophet, our senate building was also nearby to allow for quick travel in case one of our senate members ever needed to consult the gods in a time of need."

"Do you have a head of state"?

"Yeah," I cut in. "it really depends how far back you want to go, if you go back far enough in history we had an emperor, however they were replaced with two Sophets, or judges, they were the head of the senate. However after the third Punic war when Rome conquered Carthage the underground Carthaginians reduced the number to just one. There were few of us so some changes had to be made.

"What the, how do you know all of this Mago"? Asked Elissa asking from underneath a makeshift blanket made out of flour bags.

"Unlike some of us, I actually listened to Clitomacus." I replied.

"Hmph."

"Anyway, as I was saying until a couple years ago the one Sophet was in charge of the senate. However, our late Sophet was murdered, assassinated, some say by a renegade Greek or Roman Demigod."

"And you, what do you think"?

"I… don't know what I think" I said sliding into my makeshift bed.


	14. Chapter 14

**I Don't own anything**

Thankfully my sleep was uninterrupted by any dreams or visions, and I wasn't awoken in a violent or annoying manor.

"Sleep well"? Asked a refreshed Gisco.

"Yes, finally." I responded.

Gisco chuckled at that, I could tell that his sleep was also uninterrupted from his cheerful expression. Much different from his mood yesterday.

"We should be reaching Chicago today; I think we are well overdue some cooked food."

"I on the other hand can't wait for an actual bed to sleep in tonight." Elissa said emerging from below deck.

"I don't know what you're talking about I find these makeshift beds quite comfortable." Bethóc said behind Elissa.

"You're just used to not sleeping on real beds." Gisco said causing Elissa to roll her eyes and Bethóc laugh.

A few hours later Chicago's skyline appeared out of the clouds, the Sears tower, and the Aon Center towered in front of us. When I turned my attention towards the John Hancock Tower something flickered above it causing me to believe that there was a thunderstorm underway but I looked in the sky and there wasn't a single cloud.

Our little vessel made its way to Navy Pier and we just had enough time to disembark with all of our supplies before it turned around making its voyage back to its master.

"Now what"? Asked Bethóc shouldering her bow.

"Get out of this crowd and try to find others." Gisco said already walking into further into the crowd.

We decided to take the river walk to get further into downtown. Hopefully the other Carthaginians would have decided that the best place to hide would be in plain sight of everyone. Fortunately no one seemed to notice that we were armed to the teeth, maybe they thought we were lost reenactors or something. Anyway we somehow found our way to bus station keeping our eyes open for any Carthaginian looking signs.

I used the last of our cash to buy bus tickets as we loaded on I could swear that the driver could see through the mist and was about to call for police but as I was about to make a run for it he simply turned the next passenger.

After getting off at a stop and walking around for a couple more minutes I finally had to admit that we were lost. All of the buildings were tall enough to block the sun preventing me from locating one direction from another.

We continued to walk for a while until we were in front of a tall single tower. I decided to stop for a while trying to figure out some way to find others when a bellhop approached us.

"Hello good sirs, if you would come this way please." The bellhop said in a very thick French accent.

He led us into the tall building past a line of tourists and into an elevator.

"Thank goodness you're all here." the bellboy said dropping his accent and taking off his hat revealing his short messy brown hair.

"I hate playing bellboy this ridiculous outfit and the French accent," he said tearing of his suit revealing a chainmail coat and a leather jacket.

"Mathew told me about you, said you were coming." he said sticking his hand out and shoved his uniform in my outstretched hand.

"Thanks."

He then pushed a button that resembled the sign of Tanit and turned to face us.

"Thomas J. Kirk, Captain of the African Legion. You four are about to enter New Hippone, safe haven for mortals and demigods alike. Keep yourselves in line and don't conduct yourselves in an offensive behavior. Enjoy yourselves.

"Is there anyone in authority here, I would like to speak with them."

"I already know the hundred and four are already expecting you."

"You have one hundred and four people hear"? Gisco asked.

"No, it's really the council of one point four. Rounded down because we only have two people in the whole place." Thomas said taking back his uniform.

"Just two"? Gisco asked.

"Now, six." Thomas said stretching his arms out at us as the elevator dinged and the doors opened revealing what looked like a janitor's closet.

"Welcome." A young bald man wearing a purple robe greeted us. "I am the head of the one hundred and four and the rest of New Hippone. Before we conduct anymore business perhaps Thomas here would like to show you around." the man said looking over to Thomas.

"Right sir." Thomas said as he gestured for us to follow him.

"Except for you." the man said looking at me. "I would speak with you. Come with me."

The man led me through a door to the left next to what I could only assume was a wine rack, into a small conference room.

"Sit down, you must be tired after such a long journey." he said gesturing at the table.

"As I recall you come from New Carthage I had hoped for a larger party of survivors, but that matters not, at least you made it here in one peace. Please if you would be so kind to relay the events of your tale for formal record keeping." the man said taking a pen from his pocket and sliding over a notepad.

So I told him everything, from Gisco's and my quest, the revolution of the mercenaries, the destruction of our ship and washing ashore to find myself in the Hunter camp the Stymphalian Birds finding the young Greek boy and the dracon until I had relayed the entire trip back to him.

The man clicked his pen on the table twice and stood up

"Thank you. I believe that will be all. You can find your friends now. However when you do go to free Khasis if you could find more recruits that would be extremely helpful.

I rose from my seat and was almost out of the door when he spoke again,

"You should know that we are at the base of Mount Zephon, home of the gods. However ever since the sealing it remains dormant and dead. If you were able to free the gods from their prisons life again could return there. Just a thought." He turned back to the paper smiling.

After taking a door on the right I caught up with Gisco and the others. Thomas nodded at me and continued to lead us through another hallway which led to the basement of an apartment.

"You can take your pick of rooms I have the keys for two right here." He said handing a key to me and Elissa.

"I already have a training program for you Gisco, Himilco wants you to study the culture while you are utilizing our little base of operations here, and I suggest the Field Museum and various libraries. Thomas said handing Gisco a map.

"You girls, I want you to go out and start finding more mortals who are at risk that is anyone who can see through the mist or anyone who shows promise."

"You," Thomas said looking at me "as soon as you come back from you errand Himilco wants you to report to him directly. With that, I

wish you good day." Thomas said leaving us.

Gisco's and my room was on a second floor of a skyscraper, two beds a book case and a desk, and it almost reminded me of a hotel room except for the giant fountain on the balcony. It depicted "Ba'al Hadads struggle with Yam and his Leviathan. Each club of Ba'al Hadads was in contact with Yam and the Leviathan, water arching from their wounds.

"Brings back memories doesn't it." Gisco asked coming from behind me, I hoped for his sake that he was being sarcastic.

"I call the bed next to the window."

"Yeah, sure." Gisco said taking a book from its case.

"What is it"? I asked throwing myself down on the bed.

"Ancient military strategy. That's more your forte." he responded throwing the book to me.

"The entire bookshelf is filled with just strategy books, can he not find any others"? Gisco asked scanning the other books.

"This looks like a hotel, try inside of the nightstand."

Gisco looked at me strangely then shrugged and opened the drawer and held up a very old book. "The Ba'al Cycle." He said after blowing the dust off of the cover.

"Come on, we still need to find Khasis." I said rising. "Take the book along, I have a feeling that it will come in handy."

When we reported to back to the head of the hundred and four to let him know our plans he issued Elissa and I with simple wood and leather shields as seeing that both Bethóc and Gisco carried bows.

"Wait!" Captain Kirk…

(Shut up Elissa, I don't care how _trekkie_ it sounds, his last name was Kirk and he was a captain.)

"Wait!" Captain Kirk shouted as we reemerged to street level, "Each one of you gets one of these." He said handing me four black tickets.

"For public transportation, they know us; we've hired them to ignore any _incidents_ that may happen."

"Incidents"? I asked taking the tickets.

"You know, in case anyone sees your weapons or _that_ through the mist." Thomas said pointing at Gisco's book.

"I'm glad you found that anyway should make things easier for the four of you." He said and then returned to the John Hancock Building. However before he entered the doors he turned around and shouted

"You should start in the Field Museum and _then_ the others." with that he was gone.

Taking the buss to the museum was easy, like Thomas had said the bus driver saw our tickets and let us through, getting into the museum was also easy after I pulled out my wallet and started searching for cash the attendant caught a glimpse of the black ticket and ushered us through, finding the food court was also easy.

After purchasing food with the little spending money I had we found a table with few others around. One was a male who seemed to be a volunteer for the museum, and a single young women that just so happened to be a teacher who was leading her class on a field trip.

Needles to say we didn't end up talking about anything productive and tried our best to act like your stereotypical teenagers.

It didn't go well.

(I believe I told them that.

All right, all right.)

By the end of it I'm sure everyone thought Gisco and I were automatons, Elissa was on a sugar spaz and that Bethóc was undergoing some sort of cruel and unusual punishment.

However finding where Khasis was being held, was another matter altogether.

We decided to start our search in Africa after finding nothing of use we looked around the evolving world, but found nothing of interest.

Then Gisco came up with a great idea.

"Let's head to Inside Ancient Egypt."

The first time through it was the same as all of the other exhibits, but then something hit me.

"Gisco, weren't there figurines of Ptah found in Carthage's ruins"?

"Of course." Gisco responded smiling.

"There should be images of him on the walls. Come on. He said leading us back into Inside Ancient Egypt.

Now that we knew what we were looking for the hunt became tremendously easier, inside of the market we found the picture of him. Now all we needed to do was to release Khasis.

"Any ideas"?

No one answered.

"I think I have something." Gisco responded after looking in his book for sometime. "Just, don't let anyone sea this." he said turning to the wall.

"* _Qds Khasis rs W…"_ Gisco started speaking in a language similar to Punic, but not. It was the same language that I had heard in my dream.

However I didn't have any time to think about it any longer because Bethóc nudged me out of my trance.

"Behind you, it's the same man that was siting near us during lunch." she said looking at a display trying to blend in.

"Elissa," I whispered, "distract him."

Elissa happily obliged and ran over to the man and started to bombard him with questions.

"Can you hurry up, I don't want the school group to come next." I asked.

Gisco grunted and continued on. I turned my look back to the image and blinked when i saw that it was glowing green, almost as if it was trying to pop itself off of the wall.

That's when everything went wrong.

"Stop right there, what do you think you're doing you vandal"?

Elissa had been trying to keep the man from looking at us I turned around and saw the man holding a curved sword to her throat.

"Who are you"? I asked hoping to give Gisco more time to finish his chant.

"I am a volunteer here now scram before I call security."

"That wouldn't explain why you have a sword to my sister's throat."

"Ah, mortals who can sea through the mist, I feel for your kind so i'll let you go without any trouble if you leave now." the man said releasing Elissa

"Answer my question, who are you"?

The man narrowed his eyes, "Fine I'm the head magician of the thirty seventh node based here in Chicago. Now step back or I will show you why I am called that."

"All right, Gisco are you almost done"? I asked.

"I need more time this isn't easy." he snapped.

You're Egyptian." I said turning back to the man.

"Hardly, I've just moved here from the Netherlands.

"I mean an Egyptian magician. A follower of the Egyptian gods."

"What are new recruits doing here"? The man asked. "You should be at the node studying. And please step away from the wall."

This was problematic, Gisco still needed more time to finish his... whatever it was he was doing, so I did the natural thing I made sure we were the only people and pulled out my sword.

"We are not new recruits and we are most certainly not moving away from the wall."

The man was startled for a minute but then quickly regained his composure and drew his blade.

"if it's a fight you're looking for I will certainly not back down." The man said pointing at Bethóc and Elissa both of their weapons fell to the floor.

"I will not have my first battle in years be hindered by arrows and knives."

I unsheathed my falcata as he brought forth his sickle shaped sword. When he looked at my sword he raised an eyebrow.

"You're not Egyptian at all."

I thought about using my shield but if my training had taught me anything it was that it was best to avoid using a shield against a curved blade, as the swords curve allowed an easier access around the shield. Also I didn't want to waste any time.

The first blow came as a surprise, instead of slashing at me like I had anticipated the man dropped down to stab at my stomach.

I jumped to the side almost knocking over a market board of dates, however his blade still managed to cut my side.

I now started to regret all the times I had fled over my past adventures as I realized my swordsmanship had deteriorated.

His next blow I was able to easily guard against since it was an overhead swing and all i had to do was backstep avoiding the strike altogether.

However the man was certainly a veteran, as his miss did not faze him and used his forward momentum to strike my falcata from its path to his chest resulting in a giant opening for him.

Luckily for me though he reacted surprised which gave me all of the time I needed to knock his sword out of his hand.

The man backed away eyes wide, "Who are you"?

"Mago Anderson."

"That sword isn't Egyptian or Greek, what is it"?

"It's a falcata, a Carthaginian blade made from Spanish steal."

"Well, you certainly know how to handle a sword, you managed to hold on to it even after my last blow, my compliments."

"Oh, yes, that's actually the sword doing the work, the hooked shape hilt prevents it from flying out of anyone's hands easily."

"Oh, well I, uh, you still need to stand away from the wall." the man said awkwardly.

"Done." Gisco said. "Have a good day sir.

We all started exiting the exhibit, I stopped and turned around.

"I'm sorry I never caught your name."

"Michael Desjardins."

* **Phoenician for approximately; holy khasis to raise and...**


	15. Chapter 15

**I own nothing**

"What happened"? Elissa, Bethóc and I asked. After we had safely made it back outside of the museum.

"There was a magical seal keeping Khasis out of our world, Even though I couldn't destroy it completely I was able to weaken it enough for him to slip out."

Bethóc frowned "If he was freed where is he now"?

"My guess would be on top of Mount Zephon recovering his strength. He had to use his strength to destroy the seal altogether, like I said, I was just barely able to weaken it."

"Is anyone going to bring up the white elephant"? Elissa asked. "That man was definitely not from the Netherlands he had a French accent."

" _That's_ what you're asking about him"? "He seemed to forget about us to quickly, its like he's used to people attacking him with swords." I said.

"I'm just glad you were able to buy me time, I don't want to know how it would feel to be ripped out of a spell in the middle of casting it."

"Well," I said straightening up, "We should return and report our success."

"And see what he'll do to my bow." Gisco added.

The public transportation still acknowledged our tickets so we made it back to the John Hancock Building without any difficulty, and got into the elevator going down without a problem.

"Welcome back." Himilco greeted us. "I see that your mission was a success." He said leading us into the meeting room. "Khasis has already been busy here; along with his brother they have constructed an elevator down hear that leads to the base of Mount Zaphon. They've asked me to send you up as soon as you can make it."

"Then we should get going than." Gisco said rising.

"Yes, though _after,_ you all finish writing up reports on your mission." Himilco said narrowing his eyes at Gisco. "Place them on my desk when you've completed them and then you can head up."

I was done in about ten minutes with Elissa already waiting for the rest of us. Bethóc was another five and Gisco was done in ten.

"Let's go."

I can't say I was expecting much but what I saw was a little disappointing. The elevator doors opened and revealed an arid snow covered mountain with one lonely road leading up to a small marble temple, what I presumed to be the home of the gods.

"It's rather small, how do all the gods live in it"? Bethóc asked.

"Only two gods are occupying it at present, it will grow when more gods are freed." Gisco responded.

When I described the temple as small I meant the total ground area it covered not the height each of the columns at entrance of the temple that were supporting the outer ceiling were as tall as some of the redwoods that grow in California.

The roof was flat, unlike that of a Greek temple, but still maintained the elegance of one.

Walking closer brought into view pine trees at the sides of the temple and twin horses standing on top of the outer ceiling, and two golden emblems of Tanit that were flanking the immense doorway that peeked out from behind the outer ceiling.

Flanking the entrance there were two bronze statues, one of Kothar and the other of Khasis.

"I can see they didn't waste any time praising themselves." Gisco said quietly. Which was lucky for him because both of the gods chose that minute to great us.

"You have succeeded, of course I didn't doubt you for a second." our friend from New York said greeting us.

"That's new." the other one, Khasis, said. "You're the down to earth one; you're supposed to be the glass is half empty all of the time." Khasis said entering our view. He was just what one would expect a magician to look like. A man wearing a tuxedo with white gloves and black hair almost entirely hidden by a top hat with some sort of glowing orange feather tucked in it.

He must have noticed because he winked and looked at me "It's a phoenix feather; I thought it would add some flair to my attire."

"Please excuse my brother he can be a bit, much at times." Kothar said like he was contemplating using a different word. "This way please." he said leading us through the temple and into a workshop.

"My brother was able to finish your quiver." he said handing a Gisco a leather quiver with the sign of Tanit engraved on it.

"And for the young lady we wish to present to you a lance." Khasis said handing Elissa a thin Iron shaft with a Mithril tip.

"A soliferrum" I said forgetting my manners.

"Correct." Kothar said smiling; I assumed it wasn't because of my knowledge of weapons as much as it was his pride of making it.

"Soon we should have made a city at the bottom of the mountain for all of you lucky enough to be granted the honor of living next to our home." Khasis said with a smile that was far too big.

"Yes, well as lovely as that sounds I'm sure they must be on their way, isn't that right"? Kothar asked.

"Oh, all right."

I was about to protest but then I noticed the warning in Kothar's eyes and bowed to the gods and ushered my friends out of the temple the way we had came.

The walk back to the elevator was uneventful except for the constant questions coming from Bethóc about how a soliferrum functioned and why not just use bows and arrows for range like everyone else.

I tried not to get too annoyed and explained its function as best I could, I figured her living in a small village composed of hunters, farmers, and craftsmen granted her the leeway of not knowing much about the finer art of horseback riding or hindering the enemy by creating holes in their armor.

After we parted ways and returned to our room, Gisco and I decided to rest a while before we tried anything else that could endanger our lives.

So naturally I just endangered my own.

"Mago do you know what's happening to the properties of Celestial Bronze"? I asked, laying down on my bed, the sheets still covering it.

Mago having propped his bow and new quiver up against the bookshelf sighed and looked out of the window.

"I wish, all I know is that my mother was apparently a goddess."

"Well not teq…"

"Yes I know," Gisco responded cutting me off.

"But after feeling that hunter's blade cut my skin…" he said turning around and then narrowed his eyes.

"Why are you bringing this up now"?

"Well other than the fact that I attacked an Egyptian magician there's also the fact that when we first encountered Luke I could feel his blade against my skin." I said sitting up.

"But then…" Gisco's eyes widened "how did the hunter's blade pass through your sister." his words were almost inaudible.

He walked back to the bookshelf and picked up the nearest book, which just so happens to be a book about different mythological elements.

"Celestial Bronze," Gisco read. "One of the substances that can be used against creatures and beings of the magic worlds." he read closing the book. "I'm going with that the more power the deities get the more of a magical world we, the Carthaginians, become. Congratulations, Mago by freeing Khasis we've probably just written all of our own epitaphs.

I had that pleasant thought running through my head the rest of the evening. Even having an actual meal, the first time in what felt like, a year, wasn't enough to get us out of our own misery.

Bethóc and Elissa seemed to be having the time their lives though and just shrugged off our gloominess as if it were a common occurrence.

(We are not gloomy. I mean I'm not, Gisco can fend for himself.)

"Can I have your mozzarella sticks"? Elissa asked.

"Go ahead." I responded.

"Score."

"Very mature." Gisco mumbled under his breath so that only I could hear.

The following morning all four of us found a small cafe for breakfast. Bethóc and Elissa started planning their route and Gisco was looking over a pile of books that he had brought with him from our room.

After Bethóc and Elissa left a stayed a couple minutes then decided that I should probably make my way back to Himilco and see what is was that he wanted.

"You ready"? I asked Gisco.

"Nah, I think these books will suffice for now, don't worry about paying I got us this time." he said all the time with his face in a book about classical literature.

I had barely left the cafe when I ran into Himilco and someone who was dressed in ancient Greek hoplite armor, complete with a helmet that covers all but the person's mouth and eyes.

"Mago it's my pleasure to introduce you to Xanthippus Argyris son of Ares. He will be your second in your quest."

"Quest, what quest? And shouldn't I be able to choose who comes with me." I asked. Then i turned to the Greek "No offense Xanthippus, you seem like a wonderful guy,"

"None taken." the man said with a voice that reminded me of a younger of King Theoden.

"But why can't I take who I want to." I asked, a bit whinier than I intended.

"One, because I have something else I need Gisco to look into, your sister isn't yet fully trained, Bethóc needs to help train your sister, and that's why they get the easier mission. That leaves you and Xanthippus. I wish I could tell you more about it but time is of the essence. Xanthippus will answer all of your questions about what you are doing and where you are going.

With those parting words he turned around and headed from our sights.

"Come on the stables are this way." Xanthippus said leading me through the streets of Chicago with his crimson cape fluttering in the wind.

 **This was the last chapter since the story will be split in three, one branch following Mago Barcid, one following Gisco Anderson, and the final following Elissa and Bethoc.**

 **Ignore my typo last chapter calling Mago Barcid, Mago Anderson**

 **Update, the sequel is called Elissa's Tale. How original. It can be found in the Percy Jackson category without crossover.  
**


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